Topic > The Heart of Redness: A Study of Place in Zakes Mda's Novel

This essay will attempt to critically discuss the significance of place in Zakes Mda's novel, The Heart of Redness. The idea of ​​place is that real 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 in South Africa after apartheid, Zakes Mda's novel examines the two different ideologies, that of believers and that of non-believers, linked to the future progress of the South African landscape and its people. The novel achieves this through the character of Camagu, 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 non-believers within a rural village, this village is Qolorha by the sea. The Non-Believers, on the one hand, promote the expansion of the South African economy as well as the modernization and westernization of Qolorha by the sea through the construction of the casino and resort, while those who oppose this idea can be defined as the Believers (Fenton, 2015). Believers fear that the development of the casino and resort will destroy the local culture and natural habitat of the region. Zakes Mda's novel ends with the character of Camagu choosing the side of the Believers' ideology and in fact falling in love with the daughter of one of the Believers' leaders, Qukezwa Zim (Fenton, 2015). Thus we see that, in the same way that some post-apartheid theorists reject the standard Westernized turn and development projects carried out by Western ideologues on developing areas such as South Africa, the text of the novel highlights how important it is that they maintain populations South African locals. traditions and in doing so reject Western ways and demonstrate how these third world populations should move towards an alternative and autonomous way of development for South Africa (Fenton, 2015). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To understand the ideas surrounding the location of the novel we can look at the different types of relationships that Camagu experienced with Xoliswa Ximiya, a Westernized Non-believer and Qukezwa Zim, a believer. Camagu's relationships with the daughters of these competing ideologies further raise attention to Mda's post-development position and how this impacts the idea of ​​place (Fenton, 2015). Xoliswa Ximiya can be said to be the personification of the modernized person who places the American lifestyle on a pedestal, this so-called land of the brave where you go to make your dreams a reality. Despite being highly educated, Xoliswa's account of the United States shows us that she is actually unaware of the so-called "real world" and this prevents her character from having a clear picture of the reality she finds herself in. Camagu's experience in America makes Xoliswas's description even more humorous to consider as he goes on to say that we must not take his description so literally as there is nothing wonderful about America (Fenton, 2015). Unless you think the idea of ​​racial prejudice and bullying tactics towards other countries is wonderful. Xoliswa's desire to stay away from the uncivilized forest people and fools who want to keep an obsolete culture intact (Mda, 2000) contrasts with the opinion of Zim's strong-willed and ignorant daughter, Qukezwa. Qukezwa is represented as the better of the two women as she is the more insightful and knowledgeable of the two women, this attractsCamagu's attention and is why he was so taken with her (Fenton, 2015). Qukezwa's red spirit and ability to reason are also points that Camagu is attracted to. Qukezwa embraces the idea of ​​redness and, like many people who suffered under apartheid, is skeptical of the casino and resort construction carried out by the Western culture of creating a booming economy, anything to make a quick buck. Qukezwa Refers to the Americanized education of Camagu and Xoliswa, states that both Camagu and , 2015). Based on the experience of these two reports from Camagu, we can see that the battle for Qolorha by the sea is a battle for who has the right place idea for the people of Qolorha by the sea. Throughout the novel, Camagu switches sides between the two groups of Xhosa and concludes the change by claiming the Believers' desire is to maintain their local traditions and find an alternative way for development (Fenton, 2015). A communications graduate from an American institution, Camagu first embraces this idea of ​​developing a casino and resort as it will bring a lot of money to the area and create more jobs. He is encouraged by Bhonco, who is the eldest of the Unbelievers. Bhonco represents civilization and seeks to modernize and increase economic activity through the idea of ​​building a casino and resort, this idea seems to be mainly centralized around money, the Western way of thinking (Fenton, 2015). Bhonco disapproves of the so-called redness and believes that localized traditions are a sign of their uncivilized state (Mda, 2000). In the early stages of the novel, Camagu having been exposed to the Western way of thinking, rejects the idea of ​​a different circumvention of the development project and wonders why the Believers are so against the idea of ​​the development project which appears to be beneficial to the people of Qolorha by the sea” (Mda, 2000). It is at this point that Camagu realizes that "benefiting" for believers is a different way of thinking from that of non-believers and the idea of ​​post-apartheid development would be to keep their place as it has always been rather than take the path of non-believers and conform to the Western standard of living (Fenton, 2015). However, Mda soon exposes the contradictions within the Non-Believers' argument to appeal to a post-development perspective The Heart of Redness opens with the Unbelieving chief's emotional description of the village's surroundings stating that He is always moved to tears by its melancholic beauty (Mda, 2000), but now due to the westernization of QolorhabySea this beauty would be destroyed and in theory their place reportedly in Qolorha by the sea, will be destroyed With that said we can see that Mda sees the development project as a tool of control as it has locked the two groups of Xhosa against each other. other. Similar to the rule of the British surrounding the colonial era, they control how people act and what the outcome would be, it is only the union of people that ends this era and so in theory the union of believers and non-believers would end to the feud (Fenton, 2015). To portray this image of colonial oppression, Mda addresses the impact of colonialization on the area in the past of the novel which portrays the killings of livestock. The result of which was seen as the brilliant gift of civilization by the English. We can look at this achievement of the past and see that the so-called gift of civilization has now become the.