Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness wins the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize

ZAKES Mda, internationally acclaimed South African playwright, novelist, painter and academic, has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa with his latest book, The Heart of Redness.

Not a stranger to awards, Zakes Mda won the 1997 M-Net Book Prize for his novel, Ways of Dying, the Sanlam Literary Prize (She Plays with the Darkness), the Olive Schreiner Prizes for drama and for prose (Ways of Dying and The Nun's Romantic Story), The Christina Crawford Award of the American Theatre Association (The Road), and the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award (The Hill). He has been acknowledged for his contribution to the development of drama and art through his productions, teaching and writing.

The Heart of Redness will now compete against the winners from Eurasia, the Caribbean & Canada, and South East Asia & South Pacific, for the overall Commonwealth Writers Prize.

The winner will be announced in Ghana during April.

Powerful and evocative, The Heart of Redness takes the reader to the mid-nineteenth century, in the Eastern Cape village of Qolorha, where a young girl called Nongqawuse brought a message from the ancestors to the amaXhosa people. The prophecy split the nation into Believers and Unbelievers, dividing brother from brother, and wife from husband, with devastating consequences.

One hundred and fifty years later, the feud between the Believers and Unbelievers still simmers in Qolorha as the villagers take opposing sides on every issue. When plans are mooted to build a vast casino and holiday resort, they once again battle over their future, and face the loss of their heritage.

Praise for
The Heart of Redness

'The book captures and reflects the heartbeats of all black people in the country. Heartbeats of yesterday, today, and tomorrow' -- Sowetan.

'Zakes Mda has woven an enchanting novel that calls into question many aspects of faith and mythology, both historically and in modern-day life.'
--True Love Magazine.

'In Zakes Mda's new novel, redness means traditional culture. It is taken from the red ochre used by Xhosa women as a dye and adornment....But Mda is far too sophisticated to make simple distinctions of 'tradition good; progress bad". He tackles history, heritage, exile, conservation, and empowerment in this novel of a community, riven by old animosities and coming to grips with its future and its past.'
-- Natal Witness