This thesis takes a postcolonial perspective; however, it also utilizes theories on time and culture from an anthropological foundation. To fully understand how Magona and Mda present time, I first examine the nature of time in the Xhosa culture. This exploration includes the beliefs and traditional perspectives concerning cyclical time versus linear progression. I present research the perspectives time, death, and memory, and reveal how Mda and Magona include elements of the Xhosa time concousousness in their novels. To highlight the intricacies of cyclical time in Mother to Mother and Heart of Redness, I explore the development of the traditional concepts of western time. While I utilize research revealing specific principles of time as a unit of measurement, I will utilize explorations into the psychological nature of time; while these theories are primarily used to explore human consciousness, I wish to show how Mda and Magona blur the definition of past and present within the novels. In blurring the past and the present, Mda and Magona mirror the action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and speak reconciliation to the new South Africa; lastly, I explore the ways in which Mother to Mother and Heart of Redness exemplify Benedict Anderson‘s concept of an imagined community
