To escape it, they need to be enslaved to others’ experiences and dreams(Esteva, 1992, p. It is a reminder of an undesirable, undignified condition.

Keywords: Zakes Mda, Progress, Post-Development, Post-Apartheid South Africaĭevelopment is a reminder of what they are not. Therefore, in a similar way that post-development theory rejects the normative and hegemonic ‘development project’ imposed by the West upon developing states, Mda’s text highlights the importance of maintaining local South African traditions and therefore repudiates the western homogenisation of Third World peoples and points towards an alternative and autonomous development journey for South Africa. Mda’s novel concludes with Camagu siding with the Believers’ argument and in fact falls in love with the chief Believer’s daughter. The Unbelievers, on the one hand, promote economic growth, modernisation and westernisation through the development of a casino holiday resort while, opposed to this, the Believers fear such ‘developments’ will destroy the local culture and the natural habitat of the region. This is achieved through the experience of an Americanised Southern African scholar, Camagu, and his interactions between two competing sects within a rural village. Within the context of Post-Apartheid South Africa, Mda’s novel traces the diverging arguments related to the future of the nation’s ‘development’ path. ‘Ubuqaba’ and ‘UbuGqobhoka’: Reading Zakes Mda’s Heart of Redness through a Post-Developmental lensīuilding upon the emerging critique of the Post-World War II ‘Development Project’ advanced by several post-developmental theorists, specifically – but not limited to -Arturo Escobar (1995), Wolfgang Sachs (1992) and Gustavo Esteva (1992), this essay will argue that Zakes Mda’s novel, Heart of Redness, provides a strikingly complementary stance.

The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda