The Heart of Redness a Study of Location in The Novel by Zakes Mda

This essay will look to critically discuss the significance of place with in Zakes Mda’s novel,The Heart of Redness.The idea of place is that the actual space has meaning and in doing so we see that different characters add different meanings to the space that is Qolorhaby the sea(Fenton, 2015). With reference to the atmosphere within South Africa after the apartheid, Zakes Mda’s novel takes a look at thetwo different ideologies, namely the believers and nonbelievers, related to the future progress of the South African landscape and its people. The Novel achievesThisthrough the character of Camagu who is a South African who has been exposed to the western teachings and culture of America(Fenton, 2015). Camagu who is also the protagonist shows his interactions between two competing groups of believers and nonbelieverswithin a rural village, this village being Qolorha by the sea. The Unbelievers, on the one hand, promote the expansion of the south African economy as well as the modernisation and westernisation of Qolorha by the sea through the implementation of the casino and resort while those opposed to this idea can be referred to as the Believers(Fenton, 2015). The believers fear that the development of the casino and holiday resort will destroy the local culture and the natural habitat of the region. Zakes Mda’s novel ends off with the character of Camagu choosing the side of the Believers ideology and in fact falls in love with one of the head Believer’s daughterQukezwa Zim(Fenton, 2015). Therefore we see that the similar way that some of the post-Apartheid theory’s rejectthe standard westernised turn and development projects executed by the Western ideologs upon developing areas such as South Africa, the novels text highlights just how important it is that they maintain local South African traditions and in doing so they reject the western ways and demonstrating how these third World people should turn towards an alternative and self-driven way of development for South Africa(Fenton, 2015).

In order to understand the ideas surrounding place in the novel we can look at the different type of relationships that Camagu has experienced with Xoliswa Ximiya, a Westernised Unbeliever,and Qukezwa Zim, a Believer.Camagu’s relationships with the daughters of these competing ideologies increases further attention to Mda’s post-developmental position and how this effect the idea of place(Fenton, 2015). Xoliswa Ximiyacan be said to be the personification ofthe modernised person who places the American way of life on a pedestal , this so called land of the brave where you go to make your dreams become a reality. Despite her being highlyeducated , Xoliswa’s account of the United States shows us that she is actually unaware of the so called “real world” and this blinds her character from having a clear image of the reality she is placed in. Camagu’s experience of America makes Xoliswasdescription even more humours to look at as he goes on to say that we must not take her description so literal as there is nothing wonderful about America(Fenton, 2015). Unless you think the idea of racial prejudice and bully-boy tactics towards other countries are wonderful. Xoliswa’s desire to be away from the uncivilized bushpeople and the fools who want to keep intact an outdated culture(Mda, 2000) is contrasted to the opinion of the strong will powered and uneducated daughter of Zim, Qukezwa. Qukezwa is represented as the better of the two women as she is the most perceptive and knowledgeable of the two women, this catchesCamagu’s attention and is the reason why he was so taken back by her(Fenton, 2015). Qukezwa’s red spirit and ability to reason are also points that Camagu is drawn towards. Qukezwa embraces the idea of rednessand, like many people who suffered during the apartheid, she is sceptical of the construction of the casino and resort brought about by the western culture of creating a booming economy, anything to make a quick buck.QukezwaReferrs to Camagu’s and Xoliswa’s Americanised schooling, she states that both Camagu and Xoliswa have been damaged by their western education which imposes a ruling and dominant type of knowledge verging on the cultural imperialism over the people of Qolorha by the sea (Fenton, 2015).

Building on from the experience of these two relationships by Camagu, we can see that the battle for the Qolorha by the sea is a battle for who’s idea of place is the right one for the people of Qolorha by the sea. Over the course of the novel, Camagu shifts stances between the two groups of Xhosa people and ends off the shifting by supporting the Believers’ who’s desire is to keep in place their local traditions and find an alternative way for development to take place(Fenton, 2015). As a graduate in communications from an American institution, Camagu firstly embraces this idea of Developing a casino and resort as it will bring in a lot of money to the area and will create more jobs, he is encouraged by Bhonco who is the elder of the Unbelievers. Bhonco stands for civilizationandseeks to modernise and increase economic activity through this idea of building a casino and resort, this idea seems to be mainly centralised around money, the western way of thinking (Fenton, 2015). Bhonco disapproves of the so-called redness and believes that the localised traditions are a sign of their uncivilised state(Mda, 2000).

In the early stages of the novel, Camagu having been exposed to western ways of thinking,sacksthe idea of a different way around the development project and questions why the Believers are so against the idea of the development project that seems to be beneficial to the people of Qolorha by the sea” (Mda, 2000).it is At this point, Camagu realises that "benefit” for the believers is a different way of thinking to that of the unbelievers and the idea of the post-apartheid development would be to keep their place the way it has always been rather than take the route of the non-believers and conform to the western standard of living(Fenton, 2015).However, Mda soon exposes the contradictions within the Unbelievers’ argument in order to appeal to a post-development perspective. We can see this contradiction as The Heart of Redness opens with the chief Unbeliever’s emotional description of the village’s surroundings stating that He is always moved to tears by its wistful beauty (Mda, 2000), but now due to the westernization of QolorhabySea this beauty would be destroyed and in theory their place referring to Qolorha by the sea, will be destroyed with it.

With the above being said we can see that Mdaviews the development projectas an instrument of control as it has pinned the two groups of Xhosa people against each other. Similar to the dominance of the British surrounding colonial era they control how the people act and what the outcome would be, it is only the coming together of the people that put an end to this era and so in theory the coming together of believers and Unbelievers would put an end to the feud(Fenton, 2015). In order to depict this image of colonial oppression,Mda addresses on the impact of colonialization on the area within the past of the novel that portrays the Cattle-Killings. The outcome of which was seen as the British delivering the brilliant gift of civilisation. We can look at this outcome of the past and see that the so called gift of civilisation has now become the gift of modernisation that Xoliswa and the other Unbelievers come to see as the better end of the stick (Fenton, 2015).

To conclude this essay we can see that two opposite ideologies exist in the novel these being the Believers and Unbelievers, we can also see that the battle between the two strongly reflects the past colonial era where the British where opposed to Xhosa ideas and imposed their ideologies unto them(Fenton, 2015). The idea of the Westernised Development Project shows how outside ideologies can interfere with those ideologies of native people who value their place as more than a great investment. This essay has also indicated that Mda can be closely associated with the believers as Camagu in the end chooses to side over what he has been brought up with ,this being the westernised way of thinking, and choose the hand of Qukezwa. I have illustrated this by emphasising the contrast in which Mda depicts the two divergent groups; the Believers as “soft and compassionate. The clever ones, whose heads caught fast” (Fenton, 2015) whereas the Unbelievers are described as the “the selfish greedy men” ( Fenton, 2015). I have evaluated the origins and effects of space and place within post-development theory and sought to explain its importance in relations to Mda’s anti-modernity developmental case demonstrated within The Heart of Redness. In order to achieve this aim, it has been argued that Mdabases his critique through the protagonist, Camagu, with the way he rejects the ideas of westernization that he has been taught is the right way of doing things, this can be seen in his decision to choosQukezwa over Xoliswa.