This essay will seek to critically discuss the importance of location in Zakes Mda's novel, The Heart of Redness. The idea of ​​place is that real space has meaning and in doing so we see that different characters add different meanings to the space that is Qolorhaby the sea (Fenton, 2015). With reference to the atmosphere that prevailed in post-apartheid South Africa, Zakes Mda's novel takes a look at the two different ideologies, namely believers and non-believers, linked to the future progress of the South African landscape and its inhabitants. The novel achieves this through the character of Camagu, a South African who has been exposed to Western teachings and American culture (Fenton, 2015). Camagu who is also the protagonist shows his interactions between two competing groups of believers and non-believers within a rural village, this village being Qolorha by the sea. The non-believers, on the one hand, promote expansion of the South African economy as well as the modernization and westernization of Qolorha by the sea through the establishment of the casino and the hotel complex while those who oppose this idea can be called the believers ( Fenton, 2015). Believers fear the development of the casino and resort will destroy the local culture and natural habitat of the area. Zakes Mda's novel ends with the character Camagu choosing the side of the Believers' ideology and actually falling in love with one of the daughters of the leader of the Believers, Qukezwa Zim (Fenton, 2015). Therefore, we see that in the same way that some post-apartheid theories reject the standard Westernized turn and development projects executed by Western ideologues on developing regions such as South Africa, the text of the novel emphasizes to how important it is that they maintain the local South African culture. traditions and in doing so they reject Western methods and demonstrate how these third world peoples should turn to an alternative, self-sustaining development path for South Africa (Fenton, 2015). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay In order to understand the ideas surrounding place in the novel, we can look at the different types of relationships that Camagu experienced with Xoliswa Ximiya, a Westernized unbeliever and Qukezwa Zim, a believer. Camagu's relationships with girls from these competing ideologies draw further attention to Mda's post-developmental position and how this affects the idea of ​​place (Fenton, 2015). Xoliswa Although she is highly educated, Xoliswa's account of the United States shows us that she is actually unaware of the so-called "real world", which prevents her character from having a clear picture of the reality in which he finds himself. Camagu's experience of America makes Xoliswasdescription even more humorous to watch as he goes on to say that we should not take his description literally because there is nothing wonderful about America (Fenton, 2015 ). Unless you find the idea of ​​racial prejudice and bully tactics against other countries wonderful. Xoliswa's desire to get away from uncivilized bushmen and fools who want to keep an outdated culture intact (Mda, 2000) contrasts with the opinion of Zim's strong-willed and uneducated daughter, Qukezwa. Qukezwa is represented as the better of the twowomen because she is the more perceptive and competent of the two women, which attracts Camagu's attention and is the reason why he was so captivated by her (Fenton, 2015). Qukezwa's red spirit and ability to reason are also points to which Camagu is drawn. Qukezwa adheres to the idea of ​​redness and, like many people who suffered during apartheid, she is skeptical of the casino and resort construction brought about by Western culture of creating a booming economy. boom, anything that would make money quickly. by their Western education which imposes a type of dominating and dominant knowledge close to cultural imperialism on the inhabitants of Qolorha by the sea (Fenton, 2015). Drawing on Camagu's experience of these two relationships, we see that the battle for Qolorha by the sea is a battle over whose idea of ​​place is right for the people of Qolorha by the sea. Over the course of the novel, Camagu shifts positions between the two groups of Xhosa and completes this shift by supporting believers whose desire is to maintain their local traditions in place and find an alternative path for development (Fenton, 2015). A graduate in communications from an American institution, Camagu initially adheres to this idea of ​​developing a casino and a hotel complex because it will bring a lot of money to the region and create more jobs. He is encouraged by Bhonco who is the eldest in the region. The unbelievers. Bhonco represents civilization and seeks to modernize and increase economic activity through this idea of ​​building a casino and resort. This idea seems to be mainly centralized around money, the Western way of thinking (Fenton, 2015). Bhonco disapproves of the so-called redness and believes that localized traditions are a sign of their uncivilized state (Mda, 2000). In the early stages of the novel, Camagu having been exposed to Western ways of thinking, rejects the idea of ​​a different world. circumvent the development project and wonders why the believers are so opposed to the idea of ​​a development project which seems to be beneficial to the inhabitants of Qolorha by the sea” (Mda, 2000). At this point, Camagu realizes that "the benefit" for the believers is a different way of thinking from that of the unbelievers and the idea of ​​post-apartheid development would be to keep their place as it has always been rather than following the path of the non-believers and conforming to Western standards of living (Fenton, 2015), however, Mda soon exposes the contradictions within the non-believers' argument in order to appeal to a post-development perspective. We can see this contradiction when The Heart of Redness opens with the unbelieving chief's emotional description of the village surroundings stating that He is always moved to tears by its melancholy beauty (Mda, 2000), but now because of. the westernization of QolorhabySea, this beauty would be destroyed and in theory their place referring to Qolorha by the sea, would be destroyed That being said, we can see that Mda sees the development project as an instrument of control as he opposed the two groups of Xhosa against each other. Similar to the British rule surrounding the colonial era, they control how people act and what the outcome would be. It was only the gathering of the people that brought this era to an end and therefore, in theory, the coming together of believers and unbelievers. would end the feud (Fenton, 2015). In order to depict this image of colonial oppression, Mda discusses the impact of colonization on the region in the novel's past which depicts cattle massacres. The result was seen as the British.