Maryanne Oketch Becomes Second Black Woman To Win ‘Survivor’, By Stanley Ugagbe

A 24-year-old Black woman with Kenyan roots, Maryanne Oketch has been announced as the winner of reality competition series “Survivor”.

In the just-concluded season 42, Oketch, a seminary student from Ajax, Ont. scored a $1 million prize, and became the second Black woman to win “Survivor” — the first was Vecepia Towery who won in 2002.

It is important to note that last year’s winner was fellow Canadian Erika Casupanan, who is from Niagara Falls.

Remarkably, after 23 days spent in the wilderness, the episode began with the remaining five players: Oketch, Jonathan Young, Mike Turner, Romeo Escobar and Lindsay Dolashewich.

Following a series of games and obstacles, it all came down to Oketch and Turner, a New Jersey-based firefighter. With seven jury votes to one, Oketch took the win to rousing applause from her fellow competitors.

Having been named the winner of the keenly-contested competition, Oketch explained that she did not capitalise on her young age to convince the jury to vote in her favour.

She said “When I came into the merge, I realised that there was a trend. If you were young like under 25, you seemed strategic and you would be voted out”

“So, I basically had to pretend that I had no strategy, and when there were fewer people, I would then show my strategy in the game.”

She confirmed to newsmen that her mother was born in Kenya before moving to Canada where she raised her family.

The young winner, who is joining the millionaires club, considers herself very spiritual, and this led to her joining a seminary school.

In a post-event interview, she said “I think what is super important is to make sure that I’m always prepared in my spiritual side”.

The record-making Oketch was born in Germany and raised in Canada. However, she has lived in a number of countries across the world, but takes pride in her Kenyan roots.