The Heart Of Redness

Post-Apartheid South Africa

At a public meeting where the topic of development is discussed, “it is difficult for many people to know which side to take. Even Camagu, with all his learning, cannot make up his mind” (91). He has been visiting with Xoliswa Ximiya every day and has heard Bhonco’s opinions on the matter, but he is still not convinced that development is the answer. At the meeting, Zim teases Bhonco for having only one structure on his land and the one he does have for being the old-fashioned rondavel instead of a modern hexagon. It is seen as bad form to attack a man for his lack of possessions. When Camagu takes leave of Xoliswa Ximiya he gives her a kiss on the cheek. The villagers take notice. They are counting on Camagu to save Xoliswa Ximiya from dying an old maid. 

The next morning, Camagu is in the shower when he hears the maid scream. It turns out that she discovered a Majola in his bed. Camagu saves the snake from being killed. The Majola is the totem of Camagu’s people, the amaMpondomise clan. Exited by the honor of being visited by the snake, Camagu leaves the Majola in his bed and takes a walk down to the lagoon, where he sees Qukezwa emerging from the water. They argue about his “girlfriend,” Xoliswa Ximiya. Playing on the visit from his totem, Qukezwa calls her former teacher a snake. She accuses the new headmistress of valuing beauty over everything else. It is a characterization that Camagu cannot easily dismiss. He decides that it is safer not to be enemies with Qukezwa and tries to get her on his side. 

Camagu ends up following Qukezwa to Nongqawuse’s Valley, and they argue again about Xoliswa Ximiya. Qukezwa accuses Camagu’s “girlfriend” of not believing in the ancestors: “Just like all of you whose heads have been damaged by white man’s education” (104). Camagu takes offense at this since he does believe in the ancestors. He then listens as Qukezwa talks of the Middle Generations: 

We stood here and saw the wonders. The whole ridge was covered with people who came to see the wonders. […] Camagu is seized by a bout of madness. He fights hard against the urge to hold this girl, tightly, and kiss her all over. It is different from the urge he once had: to hold and protect Xoliswa Ximiya. This woman does not need protecting. He does (105).

The Middle Generations

Nongqawuse tells her followers that the new people and new cattle will not rise as long as the Unbelievers refuse to kill their cattle and destroy their crops. This puts even more stress on the relationship between the twins. Accused of being disloyal because his brother is one of the leading Unbelievers, Twin proves his commitment to the prophets by leading two attacks on his brother’s homestead. In the first, the Believers destroy Twin-Twin’s cattle and crops. In the second, they light his homes on fire: 

[Twin-Twin] was running from hut to hut, making sure that all his children were safe, when he came face-to-face with his brother, leading the men who were now singing triumphantly and dancing around the burning homestead (112). 

Unbelievers like Twin-Twin find refuge in the mountains. He and his family are forced to become beggars, except for his main wife, who has left him for the Believers. The scars on his back begin to itch, as they begin to itch for his descendant, Bhonco, as well. 

Post-Apartheid South Africa

Bhonco is ambivalent to the talk of an impending wedding between his daughter and Camagu. The alliance would afford him greater stature in the village, but he might lose his daughter to one of the big cities, or even to the United States. 

Camagu goes to Vulindlela Trading Store, hoping to catch a glimpse of Qukezwa. Instead he meets up with John Dalton, and the businessman explains why he has aligned himself with the Believers when it comes to trying to stop the new business developments. Camagu understands that instead of creating wealth for the villagers, “it will take all the little money that there is in the village” (117). Since Camagu wants to stay in the village longer, John Dalton offers to try and set him up as a caretaker for one of the vacation cottages. They head over to Zim’s house to give him the news that Camagu is staying on in Qolorha-by-Sea, and that he is also against development.

Zim is distrustful of Camagu. He has heard that the younger man will soon marry Xoliswa Ximiya, making him Bhonco’s son-in-law:

‘I am not anyone’s son-in-law,’ says Camagu, beginning to lose his patience. ‘And I am not an Unbeliever. I am not a Believer either. I don’t want to be dragged into your quarrels. My ancestors were not even here among yours when the beginning of your bad blood happened’ (118). 

Camagu suggests that their side just can’t stand against development. They have to have a plan in place to help the people of Qolorha-by-Sea prosper without the casinos and water-sports schemes. In the middle of their meeting Qukezwa comes home. When Zim introduces her to Camagu, she pretends that they have never met.

The next day, Camagu encounters Qukezwa at the lagoon and confronts her: “He grabs her arm and demands, ‘Why did you pretend you didn’t know me?’” (120). Rather than answering his question, she teases him about the effects that the oysters she served him in her father’s house had on him. She then tells him a story about how she used to be scared of the sea. Her mother never let her go to the sea by herself. Once, she snuck away with a friend and almost drowned. That night her mother beat her for going into the sea alone: “Since her mother’s death she has learned how to swim, and has become quite an expert at harvesting the sea. Now she swims with a vengeance and is not scared of the most vicious storms” (121).

The Middle Generations

Even though Twin-Twin has aligned himself with John Dalton when it comes to the cattle-killing issue, he has not forgotten the part that Dalton played in his father’s death. For his part, the white interpreter does not trust Twin-Twin:

[Dalton] was not happy when Ned and Mjuza suggested that [Twin-Twin] should be saved from his mountain refuge and set up in a new homestead in Qolorha, near Chief Nxito’s deserted Great Place, where he would receive protection from the marauding bands of Believers. Dalton had to go along with the idea because it was important to show the natives—especially those that were heathens like Twin-Twin—that people who were on the side of the British Empire would receive full protection (124).

Unlike the others, Twin-Twin complains to Dalton that the British are taking land away from the amaXhosa. He is unwilling to accept that receiving “British civilization” (123) in return is a good trade-off. 

John Dalton prepares the elders for a meeting with Sir George Grey, the new governor of the Cape Colony since the last governor, Sir George Cathcart, died. Sir George Grey has been given the derisive nickname of “The Man Who Named Ten Rivers” (84) by the amaXhosa, after he went about naming rivers and mountains that already had names. Although Sir George Grey does not require any boot-kissing, he does make it clear “that the chiefs had no option but to accept” (125) the British government’s new administrative system. When Grey complains that the amaXhosa still seek out their own traditional doctors, the chiefs explain that it is because the “amaXhosa doctors are also spiritual healers” (127). The governor contends that this practice is outdated:

‘That is precisely what we must change,’ said the governor. ‘We must get rid of all these superstitions. That is what civilization will do for you. That is another matter I have been discussing with the chiefs. You see, I plan to open a school in Cape Town for the sons of chiefs, where they will grow up in the bosom of civilization. They will learn to appreciate the might of the British Empire and will acquire new modes of behavior. They will give up their barbaric culture and heathen habits, and when they take over in their chiefdoms they will be good chiefs. I want all the chiefs to undertake to send their sons to this school’ (127). 

Although Twin gets more fervent in his beliefs, the rift in his relationship with his brother troubles him. He blames the state of their relationship on the fact that their father had been decapitated: “Without a head Xikixa was unable to bring cohesion to his progeny. That was why they were fighting among themselves, and were destined to do so until his headless state was remedied” (129). Twin believes that reconciliation will only be possible when the new people and cattle are resurrected, and when the white man is pushed back into the sea.

The prophetesses set the date of the resurrection for the “full moon of June 1856” (129), but when the ancestors do not arrive from the Otherworld, some followers stop believing in the resurrection. This becomes known as the “First Disappointment.” The prophetesses then set another date in mid-August, and when again, the ancestors do not come, this becomes known as the “Second Disappointment.” When King Sarhili summons Mhlakaza to explain himself, Mhlakaza “denied that he was the source of the prophesies. He put all the blame on Nongqawuse. ‘She is the one who talks with the new people,’ he said. ‘I am merely her mouth’” (131). Eventually, he satisfies the king by explaining that the new people did not come because some Believers sold their cattle instead of slaughtering them, and some did not carry out the ritual satisfactorily when slaughtering their cattle. 

Twin-Twin is increasingly more troubled as the Unbelievers’ collaboration with the British deepens. When it becomes known that the British are going to put the chiefs on the government payroll, and they will no longer have to decide on legal cases, it is Twin-Twin who recognizes this as a power grab:

‘The white man does not know our law,’ said Twin-Twin vehemently. ‘He does not respect our law. He will apply the law of the English people. This is a way of introducing his laws among our people. As for the colonial money, The Man Who Named Ten Rivers is buying our chiefs. When they are paid by him, they will owe their loyalty to him, and not to the amaXhosa people, and not to our laws and customs and traditions!’ (134).

Post-Apartheid South Africa

Camagu has started harvesting seafood in order to make a living. Qukezwa, in one of her more magnanimous moods, spends a morning teaching Camagu “the art of catching mussels and oysters, or imbhaza and imbhatyisa” (138). Instead of going into competition with the local women who sell their catch to the Blue Flamingo Hotel and to other villagers, he goes into business with them and drives their combined catch to other towns. 

John Dalton meets with some of his British friends but gets angry at their fickle attitude toward South Africa. While the rest of them are planning to leave the country, he is adamant about staying: “The Afrikaner is more reliable than you chaps. He belongs to the soil. He is of Africa. Even if he is not happy about the present situation he will not go anywhere. He cannot go anywhere” (139). When they point out the Afrikaner’s racist wish for a white homeland, he calls out his friends’ hypocrisy: 

‘Yes, you prided yourselves as liberals […] But now you can’t face the reality of a black-dominated government. It is clear that while you were shouting against the injustices of the system, secretly you thanked God for the National Party which introduced and preserved that very system for forty-six years’ (140).

On his way back to his store, Dalton sees Bhonco, and although he gives him a ride, he has the elder sit in the back of the bakkie—“customs do not die easily” (141). When he finds out that Bhonco is planning to fight a family of tourists that embarrassed his wife, Dalton persuades Bhonco to come with him to the store instead. There they find Zim and Camagu, waiting to speak to Dalton about the possibility of planting some botanical gardens. Dalton and Camagu try to claim neutrality, but the hard feeling between Zim and Bhonco make it impossible not to be dragged into their hostilities. At one point, Camagu looks at the door and sees Qukezwa: 

His mind is no longer on the botanical garden. It is wandering somewhere in the clouds. […] He excuses himself. He must get away from these surroundings that are haunted by Qukezwa’s aura. He must fight the demons that take hold of him at the mere thought of her smile. He must try and be in control. This wild woman cannot possibly be of any good to him (148-49).

That evening he meets Xoliswa Ximiya, but she walks away from him after they have a disagreement over his belief in the Majola as his clan’s totem, saying: 

‘You are an educated man, Camagu, all the way from America. How do you expect simple peasants to give up their superstitions and join the modern world when they see educated people like you clinging to them?’ (150). 

As he walks home, “[h]e is startled out of his reverie. A silvery beast stands right in front of him. She is sitting on top of it, all silvery in her smug smile” (151). Camagu eventually allows Qukezwa to pull him up on the horse. Then he realizes that he is aroused. He “takes his mind off his dire situation, and sends it to dwell on Xoliswa Ximiya’s icy beauty” (152).