The Heart Of Redness

Post-Apartheid South Africa

Now in his mid-40s, Camagu had spent almost 30 years in “exile” in America where he completed a doctoral degree and developed his “skills in the area of development communication” (29). He “worked for international agencies” and “as an international expert he had done consulting work for UNESCO in Paris and for the Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome” (29). In 1994, he took leave from his job to return to South Africa and cast his vote in the elections, and “swept up by the euphoria of the time” (29), decided to stay in his home country and lend his skills to the remaking of South Africa. However, those charged with rebuilding South Africa view him as unpatriotic for having deserted his country. 

At one interview, he is asked several questions about his familiarity with the country: “You have been out of the country for many years. What makes you think that you can do this job? How familiar are you with South Africa and its problems?” (30). Camagu, whose pride often gets in the way of his achieving success, responds, “How familiar are our rulers, presidents, ministers, and lawmakers—who have either been in prison or in exile for thirty years—with South Africa and its problems?” (30). Camagu could have used his connections in the country to secure a position, but he operates “under the misguided notion that things happened for you because you deserved them, not because you had the most influential lobbyists” (30). 

Teaching part-time at a trade school in Johannesburg, Camagu becomes even more disillusioned when his students protest by taking the principal hostage. After a week, the students’ demands are met, the principal is released, and the cabinet minister who negotiated the terms praises the students for their victory. There is no accountability for the students or justice for the principal. At that point, “Camagu’s hopes that things would come right were crushed” (34), and he resigns from the school, packs his suitcase, and plans to head back to America the next day.

The night before he plans “to go back to exile” (31) Camagu is restless. He lives over a nightclub called Giggles in the neighborhood of Hillbrow. When he tells his fellow club-goers that his bags are packed, they hurl accusations at him, saying that he is unpatriotic because he is “deserting his country in its hour of need for imperialistic America” (27). He wants to walk the streets, but he is “dead scared of this town” (27) and decides to join a funeral procession entering his 20-story building. While there, he becomes captivated by a beautiful woman singing hymns for the dead. Afterwards, Camagu speaks to the woman and finds out that her name is NomaRussia and she lives in Qolorha-by-Sea. She had come to Hillbrow to “visit her ‘homeboy,’ only to find” (35) that he is dead.

Post-Apartheid South Africa

While Bhonco, a direct descendant of Twin-Twin, “resurrected the cult” (6) of Unbelievers, Zim, a direct descendant of Twin, is “the leading light of the Believers” (36). He even named his son and daughter after his ancestors, Twin and Qukezwa. Still mourning the death of his wife, NoEngland, a year earlier, Zim finds solace under his wild fig tree, for “it knows all his secrets. It is his confessional” (38). It also offers a direct link to his ancestor, having been planted by Twin, and “spreading wide like an umbrella over his whole homestead” (38). 

Qukezwa disrupts her father’s meditations by shouting angrily at him: “You see the disgraceful things you do, tata? Now people shout at me at work! Do you want me to lose my job?” (39). Qukezwa works at Vulindlela Trading Store, owned by John Dalton, the direct descendent of the interpreter who took part in the desecration of Xikixa’s corpse. While Dalton’s wife is “a Free State Afrikaner” who has never bothered to learn isiXhosa, they say of John Dalton, that though “his skin is white like the skins of those who caused the sufferings of the Middle Generations […] his heart is an umXhosa heart” (8). 

That day at work, a group of young women shouts at Qukezwa: “Your mother was a filthy woman! She must be rotting in hell for what she did to that poor girl” (39). Missis Dalton threw the young women out but told Qukezwa that if she brought fights into the store, she would ask Mr. Dalton to fire her. 

Two years prior, Qukezwa’s mother, NoEngland, had taken on an assistant to help her sew school uniforms. The two women became close, but the young girl set her sights on Zim. Flattered by the young girl’s interest in him, Zim gave way to temptation and had a secret affair with the young girl: “But the girl became too greedy and selfish. She was not satisfied with the occasional tryst. She wanted Zim for herself alone.” (40). The young woman went to a famous diviner, or igqirha, to help her steal Zim away from NoEngland. The diviner told the young girl to bring one of NoEngland’s undergarments to him and he would “‘work it” (40) and Zim would love only the girl. But when the young woman brought one of NoEngland’s petticoats to the diviner, he recognized it as belonging to Zim’s wife. He brought it to NoEngland and let her in on the young woman’s plans. He then told NoEngland to bring him one of the young woman’s undergarments, which she did. He “worked it” (41) and since “that day the girl has never been able to have another tryst with anyone. Lovers have run away from her because whenever she tries to know a man—in the biblical sense, that is,” her period comes “in gushes, like water from a stream” (41). In defending himself, Zim tells his daughter, “We are not supposed to talk ill of the dead, but your mother was not so innocent in this matter […] How do you think the igqirha knew that was her petticoat?” (41). 

Qukezwa talks to her father about moving to Johannesburg and becoming a clerk. Her brother Twin, a successful artist, had left Qolorha-by-Sea after suffering a broken heart. He had been in love with Bhonco’s daughter for many years, but Xoliswa Ximiya eventually “outgrew Twin as she became more educated. […] Villagers, however, still hope to this day that the two will eventually marry and bring about peace between the two families” (43).

The next day was “nkamnkam day,” when pensioners receive their checks and get them cashed at the Vulindlela Trading Store. John Dalton deducts any amount they owe on credit, or ityala, and if there is cash left over, he gives it to the pensioner: “For those who have been careless during the month there will be no money. The whole pension check will be swallowed up by their ityala. The next month the vicious cycle of debt will continue” (45). For some unexplained reason, Bhonco is the only elder who does not receive his pension, a fact that Zim throws in the Unbeliever’s face. 

The Middle Generations

The cattle of the amaXhosa people are dying in droves. Lungsickness, a disease “brought to the land of the amaXhosa nation by Friesland bulls that came in a Dutch ship two years earlier, in 1853” (50), is decimating the herds, and “the maize in the fields was attacked by a disease that left it whimpering and blighted” (51). In an effort to protect their cattle, the twins and their families relocate to Qolorha. 

In their new home they are reintroduced to Mhlakaza. When they had known him before, he had gone by the name of Wilhelm Goliath:

At first he was baptized in the Methodist Church, and married his wife, Sarah, from the clan of the amaMfengu, in that church. But soon enough he deserted his Methodist friends and threw in his lot with the Anglicans. The Methodists, he said, told their hearts in public. He preferred the private confessions of the Anglicans. Also, the Anglicans wore more beautiful robes. (48). 

The twins did not treat Wilhelm Goliath seriously. Twin-Twin asks, “This man is from such a distinguished family. His father was King Sarhili’s councillor. What is he doing with these people who were cast into the sea?” (49). He is referring to the white people who led the Methodist and Anglican churches. But while the twins agree on the ridiculousness of Wilhelm Goliath, they still disagree on Mlanjeni. Twin-Twin blames Mlanjeni for their father’s death, while Twin still considers him to be a “true prophet” (50). 

Mhlakaza, who no longer answers to Wilhelm Goliath, explains that once the Anglicans settled, he was treated more like a servant than a holy man in his own right. He left and returned to his ancestral home. Now he calls a public meeting to tell the people of Qolorha that his niece, Nongqawuse, and his sister-in-law, Nombanda, have had a vision. They had been given a message that the “existing cattle are rotten and unclean. They have been bewitched. They must all be destroyed” (54).

Post-Apartheid South Africa

On his way to the airport to catch his flight to America, Camagu impulsively decides to make the 10-hour drive to Qolorha-by-Sea. After waiting in line behind the pensioners at Vulindlela Trading Store, Camagu asks to speak to the owner and his wife. The salesperson instructs Qukezwa to take Camagu to the Daltons’ home. On the short walk over, Qukezwa informs Camagu that she is single and offers herself up to him. Camagu is taken aback by the young girl’s forwardness. 

John Dalton does not know the NomaRussia that Camagu is looking for, but he is “fascinated by an umXhosa man who has spent so many years living in America” (57). After a two-hour talk, Camagu decides to stay the night at the Blue Flamingo Hotel.