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9. Other Histories, Other Knowledges: Zakes Mda, The Heart of Redness

Readings

Please read the following texts:

• Zakes Mda, The Heart of Redness. New York: Picador, 2003.

Course Pack

• Peires, Jeff. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Xhosa Cattle-Killing." The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856-7. Johannesberg: Ravan, 1989. 312-322.

Other

• Read Andrew Offenburger's summary account of what he says constitutes "plagiarism" in Mda's novel at http://www.andrewoffenburger.com/theheartofredness.asp . If you have time, you can read the full article that raised the controversy, which Offenburger has linked to this page. Note that this isn't the last word: both Peires and Mda have responded and in turn critiqued Offenburger. Try to google to find out what they've said.
• You may also be interested in the web site on the Cattle-Killing produced by Offenburger at http://www.xhosacattlekilling.net/resources/default.asp

What to Look for in Reading

Zakes Mda is a well-known South African playwright who has moved to writing a series of critically acclaimed novels—of which The Heart of Redness is one—after the end of apartheid. Mda himself has reflected on his change of genres, and in a recent interview suggested that it is bound up with changes in his own environment in South Africa after the end of apartheid. Mda notes that theatre and short stories were useful vehicles for protest against the apartheid regime, but that after apartheid the issues a writer has to deal with become more complex, and perhaps need a form of writing which allows more leisurely digression into a series of areas of concern and a greater engagement with the past.

Among other issues we might consider, I’m interested in looking at the novel in terms of its two time levels. The first, the Xhosa cattle killing movement of the nineteenth century, is covered by the extract from Jeff Peires’ The Dead Will Arise. The second is the new post-apartheid South Africa after 1994, the historical process that brought it into being, and the ongoing social struggles that are manifest in the country. I’m thus intrigued by the connection that Mda makes between the past and the present in the text, a connection which even extends to the naming of characters. The novel touches on issues to do with development, black empowerment, and corruption, and initially some of the characters might seem to be rather stereotypical, marking off positions in a debate. Thus Xoliswa Ximiya seems to be uncritically accepting of Western modernity and national ideas of “progress,” and perhaps a rather stereotypical character. As the novel develops, however, there is genuine complexity. One way of thinking about the manner in which the text deals with time and social reality is to consider elements of it as "magical realist": hence the handout attached here.

However, as we'll discuss in class, there has also been a considerable amount of controversy about Mda's text: one scholarly article has accused Mda of plagiarism. This may be a useful entry point into considering the politics of magical realism and indeed postmodernism more generally.

If you’re curious about isiXhosa pronounciation, , X, q and c are all pronounced with slightly different click sounds; while h is always aspirated. If you really want to distinguish between those click sounds follow this link: if you are good at picking up new languages you can correct my pronunciation in class.

Last updated: 12 July, 2009