Werkwinkel, 2007, vol. 2(1)
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Item A Politics of Doubt: The Dissensual in The Heart of Redness(Department of Dutch and South African Studies, Faculty of English, 2007) Farred, GrantThe relationship between faith and politics, between faith and democracy, between faith and resistance, and between faith and doubt has always been complicated. In “A Politics of Doubt: The Dissensual in The Heart of Redness,” Grant Farred demonstrates how South African author Zakes Mda grapples with these issues in his novel about the nineteenth century “cattle-killing episode,” an event that divided the amaXhosa people. The Heart of Redness, however, uses the historic “cattle-killing episode” to reflect on the politics, both in a narrowly economic but also in an environmental sense, of postapartheid South Africa. It is to the historical, political and ideological differences that the novel addresses itself, attempting to find a ‘solution’ to the differences within the contemporary black community in the resonant past. Using the work of Jacques Rancière to critique the notion of a consensual democracy, this essay demonstrates the range of philosophical issues that are raised, often, only implicitly, by Mda’s novel. Following Rancière, “A Politics of Doubt” explains why a dissensual politics – a politics grounded in fundamental, sometimes irresolvable difference – might be more ‘true’ to ‘democracy’ than the politics of perpetual compromise. The conflict between the “Believers” and the “Unbelievers,” located as it is in a deeply antagonistic history, speaks of a tension that will not allow for easy reconciliation. Recognizing the historical value of these differences, and how they continue to impact black life in postapartheid society, creates the ossibility for a dissensual politics that is potentially democratic.