Estimated Reading Time: 11 min
The Ultimate Safari MCQs
1. Why did the narrator’s mother go to the shop before she disappeared?
A. To find her husband.
B. To sell her goods.
C. Get oil.
D. To negotiate with bandits.
2. What was the father doing when he went away and never returned?
A. Working in Kruger Park.
B. Fighting in the war.
C. Looking for the grandmother.
D. Hiding from the enemy.
3. What name does the government use for the people the father was fighting?
A. Wardens.
B. Bandits.
C. Soldiers.
D. The police.
4. What happened the third time the bandits came to the village?
A. They stole the livestock.
B. They stole the oil.
C. Burned roofs/thatch.
D. They captured people.
5. What position is the narrator among her siblings?
A. First-born brother.
B. Middle girl.
C. Youngest child.
D. Only child.
6. How did the narrator carry her little brother while hiding the night the mother disappeared?
A. On her back, tied.
B. Holding his hand.
C. Clung like a baby monkey.
D. He walked independently.
7. What did the first-born brother hold onto all night for protection?
A. A stone.
B. A piece of tin.
C. Broken wood piece.
D. A sharp knife.
8. How long did the children wait alone after their mother disappeared before their grandparents arrived?
A. One week.
B. All day.
C. A few hours.
D. Until the next morning.
9. Which grandparent is described as “big and strong, not yet old”?
A. Grandfather.
B. Grandmother.
C. A village elder.
D. Both were strong.
10. What did the grandmother do to try and find food while they waited for the mother?
A. Sold clothes for beans.
B. Looked for wild spinach.
C. Begged food from the mission.
D. Waited for the food truck.
11. What did the bandits take from the grandfather long ago?
A. His garden seeds.
B. His money.
C. Three sheep and a cow.
D. His old clothes.
12. Who decided that the family should go away to find a place with no bandits and food?
A. The grandfather.
B. The first-born brother.
C. Grandmother.
D. The villagers.
13. What did the grandmother exchange for some dried mealies before their first attempt to leave?
A. Church clothes.
B. Her shoes.
C. Her sleeping mats.
D. The plastic container.
14. Why did the group have to turn back during their first attempt to leave?
A. They met bandits.
B. Too thirsty/no river.
C. The children refused to walk.
D. Grandfather became ill.
15. What did the grandmother sell at the village where they found a pump?
A. Her shoes.
B. Her dried mealies.
C. Her church card.
D. Her plastic container.
16. Why did the family join the larger group of people going away?
A. To share food.
B. They knew the people.
C. They knew the way.
D. They were forced to join.
17. Why did the narrator know about the Kruger Park?
A. It was near their village.
B. Men worked there.
C. Bandits hunted there.
D. It was a national park.
18. What happened to the animals in the narrator’s own country before the war?
A. They were protected.
B. Bandits/soldiers ate them.
C. They migrated away.
D. They were killed by crocodiles.
19. Why was the fence surrounding the Kruger Park dangerous?
A. Too high to climb.
B. Electrified, would kill them.
C. Police were waiting.
D. Guarded by wild animals.
20. What instruction did the man give them about moving through the Kruger Park?
A. Move quickly on the roads.
B. Move like animals, off roads.
C. Hunt the buck for food.
D. Make noise to scare predators.
21. Why did the man leading the group let the tortoise go?
A. Smoke would reveal them.
B. Tortoises were sacred.
C. It was too small to eat.
D. The children objected.
22. When did the narrator first sense the elephants in the Kruger Park?
A. They saw them immediately.
B. They saw them at a water-hole.
C. Heard cracking branches.
D. They only saw their tracks.
23. What was the only food they found to eat in the Kruger Park after the mealies finished?
A. Roots and grass.
B. Wild fruit like bananas.
C. Dry figs full of ants.
D. Leftovers from camps.
24. What happened to the narrator’s grandfather in the elephant grass?
A. He was taken by birds.
B. Went into elephant grass.
C. He had to be carried.
D. He returned to his village.
25. When the lions approached the sleeping group at night, what did the narrator pray for?
A. The man to protect them.
B. Lions take someone on edge.
C. They all wake up and run.
D. The lions to ignore them.
26. What was the grandmother carrying when they left their possessions behind?
A. Her church clothes.
B. The basket and container.
C. Her little brother.
D. The sleeping mats.
27. What birds did the narrator observe flying above them the day they waited for the grandfather?
A. Butterflies.
B. Vultures.
C. Monkeys.
D. Soldiers’ helicopters.
28. When they finally arrived “away,” what was their primary shelter?
A. A mission hospital.
B. A school building.
C. A very big tent.
D. Brick houses.
29. What does the grandmother do to earn money in the new village?
A. Cleans white people’s houses.
B. Carrying bricks/stones.
C. Sells clinic mealie meal.
D. Weaves sleeping mats.
30. When asked if she hoped to go back to her country, what was the grandmother’s final answer?
A. I will not go back.
B. There is nothing. No home.
C. Only if the war is over.”
D. I will go back through Kruger Park.
Brief Overview
The Ultimate Safari is a short story by Nadine Gordimer. An unnamed young girl from Mozambique narrates it. The story follows her family’s desperate flight from the violence of a civil war.
The war has killed the girl’s father and caused her mother to disappear. The narrator, her brother, her grandmother, and her grandfather decide they must flee their village. They join a large group of refugees walking south toward the promised safety of South Africa.
The journey is long and brutally challenging. They walk for weeks through the vast, wild Kruger National Park. The family suffers greatly from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. The grandmother, who is the strongest figure, constantly encourages the children to keep walking.
The “safari” of the title is not a tourist trip but a grim journey of survival. They face real dangers from wild animals and from soldiers. They successfully crossed the border into South Africa.
The family is eventually taken to a crowded refugee camp. Life there is safer but still harsh and uncertain. They live in a tent, waiting for news of the narrator’s missing mother.
The grandfather, feeling useless and sad, eventually leaves the camp to try and find a job. The story ends with the narrator’s simple, enduring hope for a more normal, stable life.
