In this paper I will first examine how, through the historic evocation of Nongqawuse, Mda points to the ambivalence which permeates the writing and perception of colonial times second, I will analyse how Mda’s conception of art for development underpins his narrative choices and last, I will analyse how his novel presents an epistemological challenge to the inadequacy of dual thinking in post-apartheid South Africa.Ģ Mda resuscitates the legendary figure of Nongqawuse as a metaphorical operator to expose the ambivalence of her role in South African history and literature. As he vividly recalls the events surrounding Nongqawuse’s prophecies and their tragic consequences, Mda engages in a critical assessment of the possibilities of empowerment really offered to poor and marginalised rural communities in the new South Africa. In evoking a tragic episode in the history of the amaXhosa, the Cattle Killing Movement, Mda seems to follow a twofold agenda: he delves into a dramatic turning point in the history of South Africa from the vantage point of a country which has now formally got rid of colonial oppression, and at the same time he examines how the resurgence of past quarrels affects the present. While one set of characters obdurately adheres to rigid and even absurd traditional customs for the sake of loyalty to their tragic history, the other is just as obdurately and absurdly confident that the future prosperity of their village will be secured by capitalist developers. It deals with the difficult choice a disempowered and divided community in an amaXhosa seaside village, the birthplace of a legendary prophetess, Nongqawuse, has to make in order to adapt to the complexity of a changing world. The Heart of Redness addresses post - colonial issues of ambivalence, empowerment, and epistemology. It is a historical, satirical and ecological novel and, like many South African novels published after the demise of apartheid and in the aftermath of the Truth and Reconcilation Commission (hereafter TRC) hearings, it delves into the colonial past of the country and examines it in the light of contemporary issues. The Heart of Redness is a richly textured novel intertwining two narrative strands over a period of almost one hundred and fifty years. It won two literary awards: The Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa), and the Sunday Times Fiction award.

1 The Heart of Redness, published in 2000, is Zakes Mda’s second novel after Ways of Dying (1995).

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