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The Heart of Redness

Zakes Mda

3.72 · Rating details · 1,410 ratings · 114 reviews

In a new novel by one of the premier writers of the ''new'' South Africa, an exile returns from America--where he fled during the apartheid regime--to find his newly democratic country in a shambles. ...more

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Paperback, 277 pages

Published August 1st 2003 by Picador USA (first published 2000)

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May 24, 2011 Paul rated it it was amazing

This is the story of Camagu who returns to South Africa from America. He becomes disillusioned with the new democracy and moves to the Eastern Cape where the Xhosa people live; he follows a woman he heard sing at a funeral. He does not find her but finds a people split between Believers and Unbelievers; two strands of the same family/ancestors. In the nineteenth century a young prophetess commanded the people to destroy their cattle and crops; if they did the ancestors would rise and drive the w ...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Zandile rated it it was amazing

what a book, i enjoy it.As a Xhosa i felt unease because of some the charecters.When reading the book i identify some themes this of course was all done in my understanding.the first theme that seem to prevail throught out the novel is the clash of cultures.this could be seen in Xoliswa Ximiya, she embraces the western culutre at the expense of her traditional culture.she sees her people as being outdated by following the thier culture, her traditional culture is as if its an obstilce for progre ...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Beverly rated it liked it

My thoughts:
• First I needed to remind myself that this novel was published in 2002 and at that time this was a very forwarding novel and a way to present the political/cultural issues South Africa at the time the book was published
• Understand some of the historical background helps with the understanding of the book and the issues presented
• In some ways the book is very universal in its themes and presentation – especially for cultures/countries that were colonized and the native cultures wer ...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Margitte rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, african-authors, fiction, favorites, africa, south-africa

Writing, and introducing, the Xhosa customs and stories to the world in this book, Zakes Mda
conjures up a landscape so beautiful and so unknown to many people, with such warm hearted people, that the reader is left with a yearning to meet the characters and visit the hidden paradise. It is an excellent novel.

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Jul 26, 2011 Robert rated it really liked it

Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness is one book which has been cropping up a lot in my working life. When I started working as a librarian proper in the fall of 2006 I came across two battered copies of The Heart of Redness. As I was doing a major weeding operation at the time, I felt that these books should not be thrown or given as I found the subject matter to be useful as a teaching aid. I stored them in my cupboard for safe keeping.

Come a few weeks ago and I discover that this book is on the l Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness is one book which has been cropping up a lot in my working life. When I started working as a librarian proper in the fall of 2006 I came across two battered copies of The Heart of Redness. As I was doing a major weeding operation at the time, I felt that these books should not be thrown or given as I found the subject matter to be useful as a teaching aid. I stored them in my cupboard for safe keeping.

Come a few weeks ago and I discover that this book is on the list so I ordered a copy from Amazon (yeah I know but it was unavailable outside of Europe at the time) Only when receiving it that I had two copies stored aside. A D’oh! moment if there ever was one!

Mda tale entwines South African history with present day South African politics. Its plot is very labyrinthine so I’ll try to explain it as clearly as possible.

Back in the 1850’s the child prophet Nongqawuse told the Xhosa tribe that if they killed all their cattle, The British colonial government will leave South Africa and a new breed of cattle will arise out of the sea. This divided the tribe into people who believed this prophecy (believers) and those who were sceptical (unbelievers) unfortunately the prophecy did not work out and the tribe died of starvation or resorted to cannibalism.

We jump forward to the late 90’s and we find out that a scholar from Johannesburg, called Camagu decides to visit the Xhosa people in order to find a woman who has been haunting him. Upon arriving Camagu sees that the tribe is still divided. This time the believers are seen as people who hate progress and the Unbelievers, people who want a progressive change in their village. In the midst of this a casino is going to be built which divides opinions.

To complicate matters even more Camagu falls in love with the daughters of both factions and i forced to make a decision.

In The Heart of Redness (which signifies The Xhosa tribe’s traditional culture) the history of Nongqawuse is closely entwined with modern day South Africa so Mda shows us how the past and present reflect each other. There are crumbs of humour but it focuses on how modernization and capitalism can influence a certain type of mentality. Mda piles on a lot of memorable scenes as Camagu learns the way of the Xhosa people and the book ends on a ambiguous note, which could mean that progress is still unresolved. It’s a book that clearly gets your brain cells jumping.

It’s funny that it takes off where Dan Sleigh’s Islands finishes however I disliked Sleigh’s book, which tackled the same subject except in more depth. It’s clearly a case of how you tell your story then what is in your story! ...more

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Jul 07, 2014 Gary the Bookworm rated it really liked it

I came across this novel because it was listed as part of a blog post on Facebook, 20 Moments that Changed History: A Reading List. This is how it was described: "The parallel story of colonized South Africa of 150 years ago and post-apartheid South Africa...this is a book that you will devour because it's so well written, and yet it will stay with you." Published in 2000, I suspect that the author, Zakes Mda, hoped to illuminate problems facing contemporary South Africa by revisiting an extraor I came across this novel because it was listed as part of a blog post on Facebook, 20 Moments that Changed History: A Reading List. This is how it was described: "The parallel story of colonized South Africa of 150 years ago and post-apartheid South Africa...this is a book that you will devour because it's so well written, and yet it will stay with you." Published in 2000, I suspect that the author, Zakes Mda, hoped to illuminate problems facing contemporary South Africa by revisiting an extraordinary historical event, the cattle-killing crisis of 1856-57. In response to a virulent cattle disease, it was prophesied that the entire cattle population must be slaughtered before a renewed era of prosperity would occur. According to Mda, British imperialists exploited this tragedy - and the subsequent famine - to impair tribal power and to seize land from the natives.

He neatly links the colonial experience to the modern, polarizing impact of development in this back-water paradise on the east coast of South Africa. He raises intriguing questions about tourism in a developing country and the contradictions of spirituality and faith. He envisions a model for development that is based on cooperative ownership, environmental sustainability, and historical accuracy. Despite some stilted dialogue, he writes with flair and assurance, although I found the African names and words, which he kindly translates, to be a hindrance to my full appreciation. Jumping back and forth between modernity and colonial times reminded me of the experience of watching television as a kid back in the 1950's. Even when the reception was good, once the set warmed up, the picture would begin to drift. You had a few options: you could reach around to the back of the TV to fiddle with the controls; you could wait patiently for the picture to come back into focus, sometimes seizing the disruption as an opportunity to pop some more corn; or you might even give up entirely and pick up a book. When such interference is part of the book, your options are more limited. If you aren't as linguistically inept as I am - or as unfocused - you might find these factors less challenging. ...more

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Aug 06, 2017 Tumelo Moleleki rated it liked it

This book is certainly a fun way to learn about and understand some of the things what went on in kwaXhosa during the times of Nongqawuse. It is also a fun way to observe the cultural beliefs of the people and how they have evolved since those days. Makes you want to go see this valley where people congregated to witness people rising from within the sea and see how those who claimed to see visions might have been fooled into thinking they were seeing something. I know that psychology is a power ...more

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May 24, 2020 George rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-list-read-2006

An interesting, mesmerising, supernatural, clever, memorable, partly historical fiction novel set in South Africa. The story swaps between the 1800s and the 1990s. It’s a novel about the traditions, myths and beliefs of black natives and the change that occurs with the settlement of the white man in South Africa. The story states that some blacks in the 1990s are still influenced by their history, myths, superstitions and religious beliefs.

There is a feud between the Believers and Unbelievers of ...more

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Aug 16, 2019 AfroBonVivant rated it really liked it

Shelves: legendary, our-stories, historical-fiction

FINALLY, I am introduced to the ill-famed prophetess Nongqawuse! insert lady-dancing-in-red-dress emoji here I have heard this name murmured amongst my Xhosa friends and have, silently, wondered about it's origin. It felt like an empty-cup-being-filled when she was introduced to me.

The story details the journey of Camagu from Johannesburg to Qolorha-by-Sea, lured by what I believe was a blend of lust and intrigue after he encounters a woman singing at a funeral. He then becomes embroiled in the FINALLY, I am introduced to the ill-famed prophetess Nongqawuse! insert lady-dancing-in-red-dress emoji here I have heard this name murmured amongst my Xhosa friends and have, silently, wondered about it's origin. It felt like an empty-cup-being-filled when she was introduced to me.

The story details the journey of Camagu from Johannesburg to Qolorha-by-Sea, lured by what I believe was a blend of lust and intrigue after he encounters a woman singing at a funeral. He then becomes embroiled in the battle between the Believers and the Unbelievers; a feud whose origin stems from hundreds of years prior when a young prophetess instructed the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and destroy their crops in order to drive out the white settlers, resulting in a faction caused by those who believed the prophecy and carried-out the instructions and those who did all in their might to stop their kin from destroying their nation; which was already at war with the settlers.

Of all the narratives presented in the book-the greed of those in power, the abandonment of traditional believes in pursuit of "civilised" Western culture, young men engulfed by the big city, broken hearts when love is not reciprocated, the remnants of colonialism, the effects of traditionalism-my absolute favourite was my introduction to the cattle-killing movement. I had never before heard this story and ntate Zakes tells it beautifully. Some readers may be deterred by the present-past alternation that occurs throughout the book, but I personally found it fascinating; every flashback gave me deeper insight into each faction of the Xhosa nation, laid a foundation of their beliefs and revealed how those beliefs carved their present customs.

Months after reading the book, I am left with this reeling, pestering thought; what happened to Nongqawuse after her detainment? Google says she was sent to a paupers' lodge and was held as a prisoner there for some time, but no further concrete evidence of her exists.
I cannot help but wonder...was the prophecy real? Was she manipulated? Was she so grief-stricken by the loss of her parents that her mind conjured up mirages? Or was she tricked by the settlers dressed as the ancestors to advance their destruction of the Xhosa nation? These are questions that now keep me up at night!

Thank you ntate Zakes for sharing this amazing story with us. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys venturing into the past to discover how the foundations of our present were laid.

4 shining stars from me! ...more

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Jan 03, 2014 John Mountford rated it it was amazing

‘The Heart of Redness’ by Zakes Mda, is the work of a master storyteller. And stories are why we read fiction: we want to be transported away to another place and time, to escape the one we are in for a short while. Why? Because the reality we live in is, for the most part, monotonous and meaningless.
In this story, Zakes Mda takes us to not just one, but two, alternative realities, centuries apart, and weaves them together like the beautiful red isiXhosa costumes of its peoples. And their stori ‘The Heart of Redness’ by Zakes Mda, is the work of a master storyteller. And stories are why we read fiction: we want to be transported away to another place and time, to escape the one we are in for a short while. Why? Because the reality we live in is, for the most part, monotonous and meaningless.
In this story, Zakes Mda takes us to not just one, but two, alternative realities, centuries apart, and weaves them together like the beautiful red isiXhosa costumes of its peoples. And their stories are intriguing, and brimming with meaning as we follow the twin paths of tradition and progress that intersect with tragic consequences in both tales.
And yet, despite the serious underlying tones, the mood of the story is light, with a love story that keeps you guessing ‘til the end. This, for me, is the real strength of Mda as a writer: he knows his people and their culture intimately, and he uses his skill as a writer and storyteller to share that with us, the uninitiated reader. I smiled or chuckled on almost every page as I enjoyed the language, beliefs and thought processes of a culture that I have lived alongside all my life, but seldom felt or understood.
Much has been recounted in other reviews of the historical and cultural background to 'The Heart of Redness'. I shall not repeat it, except to say that if you want to enjoy the full value of the story, you should read slowly, and make notes. There is significance backwards and forwards in time on virtually every page, and making those connections is like finding those special shells or unusually shaped rocks while on a stroll along the beach.
But the purpose of a beach stroll is seldom to find shells or rocks. It is to savour the sea air, enjoy the soft sand at our feet, hear the cry of the gulls, and feel the eternity of the ocean as it advances and retreats in the same way it has for millions of years.
So it is with our stroll through the story of 'The Heart of Redness'. It is an enchanting, intriguing, bewitching and amusing walk. You will be transported; you will find meaning; and you will return to your monotonous reality satisfied and refreshed. Thank you, Zakes Mda.
...more

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Dec 27, 2015 Lauren Ellwood rated it it was amazing

Shelves: south-african, historical-fiction, university-reads, books-i-own

This is one of my favourite books of 2015. I'd recommend it to all South Africans and anyone interested in an intriguing piece of history that is often overlooked.

Focussing on different generations of the same Xhosa family, Mda uses their parallel storylines to demonstrate the relevance of cultural history. It is a great novel that introduces you to the nuances of this particular time in Xhosa history in an approachable way.

It is funny and emotional and an easy read that you don't realise is hav ...more

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Feb 20, 2016 Andiswa M rated it really liked it

I wanted to give myself a proper hiding for waiting this long to give Zakes Mda a chance ,why no one ever told me what I was missing?

The story is so beautifully written, maybe I am more appreciative being Xhosa and all, the story of Nongqawuse has always interested me hearing bits and pieces from adults.Zakes managed to put a lot of things for me into perspective, Fictitious Yes but a lot of the beliefs and cultures ring through even today. How he managed to moved from present back to way back w ...more

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Jan 31, 2020 Mindy McAdams rated it really liked it

Shelves: africa

Not an easy read, but fairly compelling. Part of what makes it difficult is that the story flows back and forth between a community of people in the 1850s and their descendants in the late 1990s. It doesn't help that some of the present-day people have the same names as the past people. Another challenge for the reader is that there are a lot of characters, and they come and go in such a way that I found it hard to keep track of them for about half of the book.

I'm glad I stuck with it, though. T ...more

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Dec 15, 2019 Julia rated it did not like it

Shelves: country-south-africa, marginalized-authors, read-for-uni, read-2019

i acknowledge everything this novel tries to do but i just couldn't connect to it at all. i found the storyline confusing if not irritable, i did not like any character and i just generally didn't enjoy this. I should probably point that i am probably missing a lot of cultural / historical background which would be useful for this novel. ...more

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Sep 01, 2019 Daphne rated it really liked it

This book was pretty difficult to get into & understand at times, but absolutely wonderful once I managed to sit down and just read it. I've never read anything quite like it, and I would definitely recommend this book if you want to read something a bit different! ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Nina Postma rated it really liked it

A book that really requires your full attention. Not always an easy read, but most definitely one that is culturally a masterpiece.

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Jan 26, 2020 Lisa rated it really liked it

Recommended to Lisa by: 1001 Books

Shelves: 1001-books-read, c21st, south-africa, africa

My recent reading of Return Ticket by Jon Doust triggered my impulse to pick up The Heart of Redness, a celebrated novel by South African novelist Zakes Mda. In Doust's novel, South Africa in the apartheid years is vividly depicted, and the narrator exemplifies the psychological disconnect experienced when living in a society that is fundamentally immoral. Life as a privileged white man becomes unendurable, and he leaves, because he can. But what if it's not possible to leave, and if one feels a My recent reading of Return Ticket by Jon Doust triggered my impulse to pick up The Heart of Redness, a celebrated novel by South African novelist Zakes Mda. In Doust's novel, South Africa in the apartheid years is vividly depicted, and the narrator exemplifies the psychological disconnect experienced when living in a society that is fundamentally immoral. Life as a privileged white man becomes unendurable, and he leaves, because he can. But what if it's not possible to leave, and if one feels a moral obligation to make a difference, even if it's risky? People struggle with this dilemma all over the world, in regimes from the Middle East to Latin America to newly nationalist places in Europe, and yes, in Australia too, if one feels anguished about Indigenous issues or the treatment of refugees or the inaction on climate change.

Zakes Mda's novel is set in two time frames. It begins in the very early years of majority government in South Africa when the country was bedevilled by transition issues and the collapse of unrealistic expectations for greater equity. But it also harks back to the 19th century when a fatal prophecy that sparked a failed independence movement and widespread starvation, led to a rift between the Believers and Unbelievers, which persists in the present day as a rift between pro- and anti-development forces in a rural community called Qolorha. Wikipedia sums it up like this:

The Heart of Redness, Mda's third novel, is inspired by the history of Nongqawuse, a Xhosa prophetess whose prophecies catalyzed the Cattle Killing of 1856–1857. Xhosa culture split between Believers and Unbelievers, adding to existing social strain, famine and social breakdown. It is believed that 20,000 people died of starvation during that time. In the novel, Mda continually shifts back and forth between the present day and the time of Nongqawuse to show the complex interplay between history and myth. He dramatizes the uncertain future of a culture whose troubled relationship with the colonizing force of Empire, as well as their own civil factions, threatens to extinguish their home of Qolorha-by-Sea. (Wikipedia, Zakes Mda page, viewed 27/1/20)

As 1001 Books says:

In the mid 1850s during the devastation of the British 'scorched earth' policies, the prophetess Nigqawuse claimed to have been visited by her ancestors who promised that if the Xhoas killed their cattle and burned their crops, the British would be defeated. Thus began an extraordinary episode in which the Xhosa were split between the Believers, those who were determined to follow the prophesies and destroy their means of survival, and those that would not.

Mda brings this story together with a modern tale of a return to contemporary South Africa, where the promises of deliverance are now through tourism and development and the destruction of heritage rather than cattle and crops. (1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, 2006 edition, p. 897)

he central character Camagu has, like Zakes Mda himself at the time of writing this novel, returned from years living abroad. As a stranger, he is able to observe events while trying not to become embroiled in the factions. Amongst the villagers, some respect his learning and his knowledge of a wider world while others despise him for abandoning his traditions and not understanding what life is really like in rural South Africa. His own personal conflicts are exemplified by his attraction to the impressive but emotionally distant Xoliswa Ximaya, just promoted to the position of principal at the high school but with ambitions to become a bureaucrat in the education ministry, and to the wild, wilful and sensual Qukezwa, who works as a cleaner at the Vulindlela Trading Store.

The conflict in the community is about the proposal to develop a casino and water playground for tourists. The Unbelievers support this because there is the promise of jobs, and the lure of bringing 'civilisation' to a village that has only just got a proper water supply but still lacks electricity. The Believers object to it because they want their traditions to continue, and they suspect that the only jobs will be the menial jobs that no one else will do. Already they are the cleaners and the child minders at the village's one hotel, and they don't want more of that. They also suspect that once the water playground is operational, they will excluded from the beach where seafood forms part of the food supply.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/01/27/t... ...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Daniel rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anybody interested in South Africa

Shelves: top-novels, literature, favourites, read-in-english

I love books that show me new perspectives and cultures - and this book has plenty of that. A millenerian movement results in a famine and the division of a nation into Believers and Unbelievers. The two camps blame each other for the decline of their nation and have radically different views of their culture, heritage, different belief systems and visions for the future. Caught in between are a white shop owner and Camagu from Johannesburg. Camagu gets to know a new lifestyle in the village, th ...more

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Jun 29, 2017 Gabrielle Schwabauer rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2017-challenge

A strange book. I read it in less than 24 hours for an English course, and it was surprisingly engaging. A lot of the past/present parallels were cleverly constructed, and the wry overtones gave the narration personality.

I wish we could have spent a lot less time on Camagu's creepy obsession with women, and definitely less time romanticizing his obsession with the final woman. The characters feel very human, but it's hard to like any of them. Most of them seem deeply selfish, Believers and Unbel ...more

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Feb 01, 2009 Valerie rated it liked it

Shelves: africa

I wanted to give this 4 stars but the abruptness of the ending squashed that. I actually sat there for a few minutes flipping pages back and forth trying to figure out if there were pages missing or not. Sadly that was just the ending. Still, overall I really enjoyed the book. There is something about the way Zakes Mda writes that really appeals to me, this mix of brutal realism and a magical dreamlike quality so that often times you aren't sure if the events he is talking about are real or not ...more

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May 31, 2011 Doreen rated it it was ok

This book was a gigantic letdown. If you want a ridiculous plot and some more stereotyping of how illogical and primitive Africans are, as well as a creepy-ass protagonist who seems to think he's entitled to any woman he wants, then by all means, read this book. ...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Tim rated it liked it

Shelves: africa-fiction

I would have given this book 4 were it not for the fact that he writes of "the warm air blowing off the sea". The warm winds in the Eastern Cape (and they are often furnace-like) always come off the land. This suddenly burst my bubble of immersion in the story and I never quite got it back. ...more

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Jul 16, 2020 Glass River marked it as fic-guided

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. HEART OF DARKNESS enjoys an achievement shared by very few other works in having provoked fellow novelists and artists to engage creatively with it. Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now and Mda’s novel, with its deliberately echoic title, top the list of Conrad challengers, with Graham Greene’s THE HEART OF THE MATTER not far behind.
Mda’s novel ponders South Africa’s modern (i.e. colonial and post-colonial) history. Are there continuities, or just a for-ever-broken chain of misfortunes and HEART OF DARKNESS enjoys an achievement shared by very few other works in having provoked fellow novelists and artists to engage creatively with it. Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now and Mda’s novel, with its deliberately echoic title, top the list of Conrad challengers, with Graham Greene’s THE HEART OF THE MATTER not far behind.
Mda’s novel ponders South Africa’s modern (i.e. colonial and post-colonial) history. Are there continuities, or just a for-ever-broken chain of misfortunes and a wholly disrupted future? The novel has two narrative centres and attempts, painfully, to forge a link between them. One centre is an 1850s Xhosa uprising against the hated British rulers. The other is the period immediately after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. Mda’s hero, Camugu, was brought up in Johannesburg and has been thirty years (a short lifetime) in the US, where he has made a career in the communications industry. In these years abroad he has lost his inner self: his ‘redness’. He comes ‘home’ to free South Africa in the 1990s only to be wholly disillusioned by the ‘new Africa’. Nepotism bars him from obtaining any work he is qualified for. The ‘Aristocrats of the Revolution’ have no use for someone who is clever, highly trained and idealistic – but not one of them. Those who chose exile have no right to the spoils of victory bought by red blood, it seems.
Disillusioned, Camugu resolves to return to the US. But the night before his departure he hears a young woman singing on the roof of the building in the slum where he is staying. She is NomaRussia, who has named herself in tribute to the Russian soldiers who killed a former governor of the Cape Colony in the Crimean War. An infatuated Camagu follows NomaRussia to her birthplace, the small coastal village of Qolorha. This is the ‘heart of redness’ because it was also the birthplace of Nongqawuse, a teenage prophetess, who inspired the Xhosa nation to rise up in the mid-1850s. First she instructed her people to kill their cattle and burn their crops as a propitiatory sacrifice to the gods. The Xhosa dead would then rise from their graves and, in their hundreds of thousands, drive out the British robbers from their sacred land. And, she promised,
the new people who will arise from the dead will come with new cattle, horses, goats, sheep, dogs, fowl and other animals that the people may want. But the new animals of the new people cannot mix with your polluted ones. Destroy everything. Destroy the corn in your fields and in your granaries.
The village was divided between those who followed the ‘cattle killing’ instruction and those who did not. The ‘Believers’ won. The subsequent uprising proved disastrous for the Xhosa. Those who were not killed by the colonial forces, starved – 20,000 of them, it is estimated.
In the 1990s, Nongqawuse’s village is still divided between Believers and Unbelievers. Those who want to wipe the slate clean – and then smash the slate – and others who want to build a casino and tourist resort and embrace the Westernised future. Camugu finds a middle way. He instructs the men in the village how to harvest and market the abalone (sea snails) from their shores, and teaches the women how to set up co-operatives for their indigenous textiles and Xhosa clothes. Their customers extend from local hotels to the great city itself. Traditional dress is much in fashion – and restaurants are voracious for sea-food. The casino would have prostituted Qolorha. Camugu has liberated it. He is, the novel implies, the true heir to Nongqawuse – and more sensible. The novel, which opened with a devastatingly downbeat verdict on the decadence of Johannesburg, ends in a surge of upbeat optimism. ...more

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Aug 07, 2020 Frazer MacDiarmid rated it liked it

I didn't find this book particularly compelling, and had to force myself to keep going (it was for a book club). None of the characters particularly resonated with me, and they all seemed quite caricatured. Rather than fully embodied human beings, they were made to stand for ideas.

The ending was also bizarrely abrupt, and left several loose ends hanging. Genuinely wondered whether my library copy may have had some pages removed.

Having said that, the book does a great job of using magical realis ...more

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Mar 06, 2017 Aphelele Tapile rated it liked it

I was so excited to read this book as not only and African woman, but as a Xhosa woman who has so often heard the tale of Nongqawuse who was the fall of the Xhosa Empire. What an underwhelming read. The concept and the historical accounts are all that kept me going. It was painful to power through and complete, at times annoying. Zakes Mda wrote more for a Western audience and the authenticity of it all was thus lost on me. The writing style I also found to be less than desired. Unlike Achebe or ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Zoya rated it liked it

A stimulating read for those interested in ins and outs of international development. It shows how far away all the professional training and a high level status in the field could be from actually getting down to solving real problems on the ground when real people, emotions, cultures, histories are involved. Going back and forth between the past and the present of a village in South Africa, the novel explores what development really is or is not. At times humorous, at other times - tear-jerkin ...more

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Sep 04, 2020 Bhekinjinga rated it it was amazing

Shelves: south-african

A story about Camagu, a South African returning from the United States where he'd spent a great deal of his life. His dissatisfaction with the state of post-apartheid Johannesburg leads him to following a woman who he had a brief encounter with (as well as a dream) to the Eastern Cape province. Once there, Camagu adjusts to a new life in the village of Qolorha, it's history, demographics and progressions.

Zakes Mda tells a beautiful story about a new democracy in South Africa blending it with ane ...more

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Jan 20, 2020 Vince rated it it was amazing

I have learned a lot from this book. From history to a lot of other isiXhosa names and ways. I am moved and touched by the people's behavior, beliefs and customs. Most importantly i also learned how not to deal with things and respecting other people. The war between the believers and the unbelievers tore families apart and didn't just end there but it also split the Xhosa nations and set them against each other.

Overall i would say loved all the characters from the rebel Qukezwa to the great Cam ...more

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Nov 24, 2018 Ida rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-non-specified

Excellent structure and plotting. The back story on the events that led to the cattle killing was really interesting. I also liked that the present doesn’t solve every problem - there is still tension and unresolved conflicts at the end of the novel. The characters are complex and interesting. I did find that the narrative style kept me at an ironic distance from the characters at times, which was funny, but did pull me out of the story a little.

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Jul 08, 2019 Claudia Cavanagh rated it it was amazing

Once every ten years or so a book comes along that I know will always be with me somewhere - this is one of those. It’s a modern African tale that digs deep into the past, full of rich emotion, vivid and yet believable characters, a truly beautifully written dream of a story that left me feel restored, equilibrium regained and utterly satisfied. Immediately bought another of his - Ways of Dying - and about to tuck in.

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Reading 1001: The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda	2	13	Mar 29, 2021 12:52PM
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About Zakes Mda

Zakes Mda

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Zakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, a novelist, poet and playwright.

Although he spent his early childhood in Soweto (where he knew political figures such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela) he had to finish his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile since 1963. This change of setting also meant a change of language for Mda: from i Zakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, a novelist, poet and playwright.

Although he spent his early childhood in Soweto (where he knew political figures such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela) he had to finish his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile since 1963. This change of setting also meant a change of language for Mda: from isiXhosa to Sesotho. Consequently Mda preferred to write his first plays in English.

His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978, a feat he repeated the following year. He worked as a bank clerk, a teacher and in marketing before the publication of We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and Other Plays in 1980 enabled him to be admitted to the Ohio University for a three-year Master's degree in theatre. He completed a Masters Degree in Theatre at Ohio University, after which he obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communication. By 1984 his plays were performed in the USSR, the USA, and Scotland as well as in various parts of southern Africa.

Mda then returned to Lesotho, first working with the Lesotho National Broadcasting Corporation Television Project and then as a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lesotho. Between 1985 and 1992 he was director of the Theatre-For-Development Project at the university and founded the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. Together with his students he travelled to villages in remote mountain regions working with local people in creating theatre around their everyday concerns. This work of writing theatre "from the inside" was the theme of his doctoral thesis, the Ph.D degree being conferred on him by the University of Cape Town in 1989.

In the early nineties Mda spent much of his time overseas, he was writer-in-residence at the University of Durham (1991), research fellow at Yale University. He returned for one year to South Africa as Visiting Professor at the School of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is presently Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University. ...more