Indigenous Onomastics in Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness: Anthroponymic and Toponymic Practices in a Postcolonial Context

Pule Seabi (University of Limpopo)
Edward Montle (University of Limpopo)
Mphoto Mogoboya (University of Limpopo)

Rainbow : Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies
Vol. 15 No. 1 (2026): April 2026

The continuous usage of colonial languages in Africa during and after colonisation creates an identity crisis in onomastics. African indigenous names have been polluted and replaced with colonial names due to the influence of colonial languages. Colonialism impacted the names of places and people in the African space, language played a major role, and black people started to adopt the colonial language and named themselves with this foriegn language. Thus, this paper analyses Zakes Mda`  s novel titled The Heart of Redness (2000) to investigate African identity-crisis through the onomastics of people (anthroponyms) and places (toponyms) of the indegenous (south) African people. The paper uses a qualitative research methodology to probe the colonial undertones within the names of people and places in the present day (South) Africa through prism of Mda`  s selected literary text.