The Heart of Redness [Paperback]

This is one of the most beautiful books I have read in years. Mda skillfullly evokes the tensions in contemporary South Africa for blacks caught between the tug of Western, technological culture and their identity in long-standing traditions. The story is given added substance by Mda's recounting the history of similar tensions from the nineteenth century, thus creating deep emotions that propel the characters. The story mixes family feuds, spats between the sexes, and sober deliberations about community versus individual choices, all told with a level of humor that underscores rather than undermines the importance of these issues for South Africa today.

The novel Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda, tells a tale of rural integration and religious conflict of a village in post colonial South Africa. The novel reveals the metamorphosis of South Africans through an economic, social, and cultural lens in the 1990s. Africa is no long the primitive continent solely known for its vast concoction of indigenous cultures. Instead, it is an emerging economy with its people adjusting to modernity and the how the lives of many Africans coexists with the remaining colonial influences. This struggle for change and progress, versus preservation of the land and traditions, becomes the pinnacle feud between the Believers and Unbelievers. By folding different generations of stories with each character of the book, Heart of Redness becomes alive with vivacity.

The story begins by introducing the Middle Generation that was lost to the colonial conflicts. Because of this great disturbance in African culture and history, the feud between the Believers and the Unbelievers drove the lives of many African decedents apart for decades. Camagu, the main character of the book, returns to South Africa for first time after being exiled to the United States for 30 years, finds himself to be a stranger in a land that he once called home. Camagu's character presented the readers an unbiased and western perspective as if the reader can experienced this story first handed.

After being educated in the west and earned a repertoire of outstanding professions, Camagu's knowledge and experience were almost nonfunctional in South Africa. For most jobs that he went looking for, he was overqualified. However, because he was not in the "elite" circle of the Aristocrats of the Revolution, he could not get into the jobs that would really allow him to make a difference. Discouraged by the rejection job after job, the discontent Camagu was ready to pack up his suit case and leave Africa once again. However, after an incidental meeting with the strange but beautiful NoRussia, Camagu begin his journey to Qolorha-by-the-sea, where he would hope that he can reunite with her. After his arrival, he learns the rich history of the momentous feud between the Believers and the Unbelievers, and the prophetess Nogqawuse "who deceived the amaXhosa nation" into famine and strife (p35). Subsequently, he finds himself intertwined with the grudge and livelihood of those who resides there.

The confrontation between the Believers and Unbelievers began when the prophetess Nogqawuse told the people of amaXhosa to slay all of their cattle for a new beautiful life awaits them. Although cattle slaying seem like a self-destructive idea, (which it consequently proved to be so regardless), the reasoning behind such request was logical for a lot of native Africans. When the Europeans brought over their cows that were infected with lungsickness, it plagued the African cows and caused devastating effects. Those who obeyed the prophecy and slain their cows became the Believers, and those who did not, became the Unbelievers. And because of this prophecy, the feud begins.

This prophecy drove ideologies, families, and friends apart. Sisters were against brothers, and mothers were against fathers. The disagreement branch out to other issues beyond the prophecy. The two twin brothers, Twin and Twin-Twin, was presented by the author to show how this prophecy can drive people apart regardless of how close they once were. When Twin became a Believer and Twin-Twin became an Unbeliever, the brothers broke apart. They each led their own mission in life to seek out their own destinies and fight against the others' ideologies.

Twin-twin was the original Unbeliever. He refused to slaughter his cattle when Nogqawuse gave the orders that the amaXhosa should destroy all their herds. He said the prophetess was a liar who had been sought by white people to destroy the black race. Today the village is full of Twin-Twin's progeny, because not many of his children died when famine attacked the land after Nogqawuse's prophecies failed (P62).

The Unbelievers thought the prophecy to be an absolute fraud. Because of this, unbelieving became a form of religion almost, as believing was. The main ideology behind the Unbelievers was that progress is necessary for prosperity to occur. The only way to do so was through the help of foreign investment and the building of a casino where it will provide jobs for the people. That way, there is a steady flow of income. In a conversation between Camagu and the leader of the Unbelievers, Bhonco, he discusses the Unbeliever's side with Camagu in regards to why building a Casino is beneficial for the people of Qolorha. "`We want developers to come and build the gambling city that will bring money to this community. That will bring modernity to our lives, and will rid us of our redness'" (p92). The redness discussed here, depicts the struggle and conflict of the African people that had endured over the centuries of colonial conquests, and the hardship that came with it.

"The Unbelievers are moving forward with the times. That is why they support the casino and the water-sports paradise that the developers want to build. The Unbelievers stand for civilization" (p71). A progressive and utilitarian view of the optimistic future is depicted here by the Unbelievers. Although the idea behind casino building and its economic benefits for the people may seem like a great idea, however, "it may not be the boon the Unbelievers think it will be" (p103). With the construction of casino building, "few men from the village, if any, will get the Jobs. Construction companies come with their own workers who have the necessary experience... Of course, a small number of jobs is better than no jobs at all. But if they are at the expense of the freedom to enjoy the sea and its bountiful harvests and the wood and the birds and the monkeys... then those few jobs are not really worth it" (p103). This rebuttal drives home the Believer's values and moral ethics to be more agreeable and sympathetic to accept. The author first seems to allow the readers to side with the Unbeliever's arguments. Ideally, this progress only seems logical and realistic for the future of Qolorha. Nevertheless, throughout different occasions in the novel, Mda reminds us time after time, that the social and moral consequences presented by the Believers in regards to the building of the casino, may not be as advantageous as it seems.

For the Believers, the failed prophecy is hindered on the shoulders of the Unbelievers as they were the once who didn't slay their cattle, causing the prophecy to fail. However, if the casino was to be built in Qolorha, Africans will have to adapt to the lifestyle of private property and ownership. This conflicts with the Africans who once knew the earth to be a collective bountiful garden of food. With the building of the casino, the sense of communal collectivity will be gone, and Africans would be forced to live with a foreign system of rules.

The rift between the Believers and Unbelievers is so deep, that even in communal events, if one group is attending, one can be sure that the other will not be there.

No one is ever invited to a village feast. When people hear there is a feast at someone's homestead, they go there to enjoy themselves... Everyone is welcome at a village feast. Indeed, it is considered sacrilege to stay away from your fellow man's feast. But none of the believers have come. The war of the Believers and Unbelievers has gone to that extent. They don't attend each other's feasts. They do attend each other's funerals... to make sure that the deceased is really dead. One less person to be irritated about. (p62)

This kind of conflict has deeply impacted the way many South Africans live. Often at times, the differences in religious beliefs can cause civil unrest and instability amongst communities. In this case, one can witness the degree of conflict that creates potential social problems, and prevent civil unity.

Another character in the novel that symbolically reciprocates the changing lifestyle of the South Africa is the store shop owner John Dalton. As a white decent and a Believer, he understood that in order to foster African culture in the globalize world of evolving demands, he must advocate environmental conservation in order to preserve the uniqueness of the amaXhosa nation.

However, one must not be fooled by this façade of his strong sense of conservationism and preservation of traditions (he did went to circumcision school). Dalton incorporates capitalistic marketing schemes into the cooperative cultural village that later served as a tourist attraction. These cooperative villages, resembles the very core of what African tradition is perceived to be by foreigners. For the Believers, the cooperative village turns tourist attraction to the Africans daily traditions, into a profit making tourist destination. As presented here, this was the Believer's way of preserving the beauty of Qolorha-by-the-sea.

Camagu learns that NoManage and NoVangelis are two formidable women who earn their living from what John Dalton calls cultural tourism. Their work is to display amasikothe customs and cultural practices of the amaXhosato the white people who are brought to their hut in dalton's four-wheel-drive bakkie, after he has taken them on various trails to Nongqawuse's Valley, the great lagoon, the shipwrecks, the rivers, and the gorges, and the ancient midens and cairns... All these shenanigans are performed by these women in their full isiXhosa traditional costume of the amahomba, which is cumbersome work when people want to look smart and beautiful... And the tourists pay good money for all this foolery. (p 96)

Although the cooperative village exaggerates the cultural meanings and execution of African traditions, it nevertheless preserved a sense of tradition that was necessary to make their adaptation to the outside world possible. Despised by the Unbelievers, the cooperative village was a success. Like Qolorha-by-the-sea, much of Africa is now an amalgamated culture of rich historic traditions tainted by globalization and capitalism.

The partial success of the novel comes from Mda's ability to manipulate the characters of the book and bringing them alive with vivid dramatization. "Qukezwa explains that they sell the best of their harvest to the Blue Flamingo Hotel, or to individual tourists... Those imbhaza and imbhatyisa that have not been bought, the women take home to their families. They fry them with onions and use them as relish to eat with maize porridge or samp" (p102). The little things that shape the way Africans live, to the errands and lifestyle that they lead, one can follow these imagery vividly and embrace the culture with open heart. From love triangle curses to street life, there are no better portrayal of the African culture than the detailed depictions of daily routines of the African women.

The feuding dogmas of the Unbelievers and Believers may never end. However, as these struggles continue, much of the transition both ideologies hinders on the evolving nation itself. What is left now is the unpredictable future. Both sides continue to be threatened and angered by each other for what has happened in the past, and what is to come in their future. Heart of Redness is a snapshot of the evolving Africa, trying to maintain a sense of tradition while at the same time, being exposed to the consequences of globalization. Thus, the byproduct of this concoction is a new cultural identity that embeds the past, present and future altogether.

To Bhonco, son of Ximiya, of the amaXhosa people of South Africa, redness connotes the backwardness of his ancestors. It refers to the red ochre "that women smear on their bodies and with which they also dye their isikhakha skirts". He strives to lead his family out of the primitive past, out of the darkness of the redness , toward the rest of civilization. This he believes, can be advanced through the approval of plans for a new casino in his home village of Qolora-by-Sea; where tourists may flock, bringing sophistication and money and jobs.

In his 2002 novel, The Heart of Redness (the title being an allusion to Conrad's classic novella) Zakes Mda, a South African, novelist, poet and playwright, not only recounts the true story of Nongqawuse, a young prophetess, and her supporters, the Cult of the Believers, but he also imagines the effect they had on modern day citizens of Qolora, her legacy to the amaXhosa. Bhonco belongs to the Cult of the Unbelievers, he follows the tenets of Twin-Twin, the original Unbeliever, who lived during the time of the great Xhosa cattle slaughter of 1856/1857 (see Jeff Peires' book The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856-7 which Mda cites as the prime resource for this work). His distant cousin, Zim and his daughter, who live nearby, are Believers. They follow the philosophy of their ancestor Twin (Twin and Twin-Twin were brothers, son of the beheaded Xikixa) who were faithful to the prophecies: kill all your animals, cattle sheep, goats, and the great ancestors will rise from the ocean bringing fresh livestock and blessings for a fortuitous future.

The two, Zim and Bhonco, as were their ancestors, are at odds; to join the modern or to respect the old ways, that is the question. Mda never really tips his hand, as he excavates this old debate. He instead wisely inserts an anti-coagulant into their festering wound, the worldly Camagu, an South Afrrican ex-pat who has returned to his homeland after thirty years from, among other places, America. Camagu blunders into Qolora-by-Sea on the scent of a woman he knows only by the common Xhosa name of Noma Russia, but soon he becomes taken with another, inexorably entangling himself with the diametrical elders.

Like Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe before him, Mda, explores common themes of African literature like cultural divide, colonialism, and gender roles. The amaXhosa are patriarchal, however they greatly value women, hence the allegiances to the young prophetesses; yet we do get a sense that behind them, their uncle, Mhlkaza, pulls their strings. Zim seems lost without his wife, NoEnglish, dead this past year, and Bhonco depends heavily on his mate, NoPetticoat. Both have daughters, Qukezwa and Xoliswa respectively, who are also opposed, both with their eyes on the stranger, Camagu. The author describes the two eloquently thus: "She is so beautiful. Xoliswa Ximiya. So staid and reliable. Qukezwa is not burdened with beauty. She is therefore able to be free-spirited." And then there is the white man, merchant John Dalton, who provides a bit of irony, as he supports the preservation of the village perhaps in atonement for the infamous deeds of his legendary ancestor of the same name. Mda allows his characters to learn and grow, and we get a sense, dynamically, of their growth. Camagu, in conversation with Believer Zim and the skeptical Dalton, has this to say about the power of belief:

"There is nothing foolish about belief... It is the same sincerity of belief that has been seen throughout history and continues to be seen today where those who believe actually see miracles. The same sincerity of belief that causes thousands to commit mass suicide by drinking poison in Jonestown, Guyana, because the world is coming to an end . . . or that leads men, women, and children to die willingly in flames with their prophet, David Koresh, in Waco, Texas."

Over the ten years since its publication, The Heart of Redness has gained near classic status, being included in the popular literary reference, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die compiled by Dr. Peter Boxall (that is how yours truly learned of its existence). Besides its historical ken, the novel is funny, romantic and hopeful. Mda's style is innately African, if there is such a thing; the use of understatement and subtlety seems key to achieving this. It is these qualities of writing which help to sustain the novel's powerful and very unsubtle message into the heart of its own redness.