Who are the humans, and who are the prawns?

District 9 is an enforced boundary separating humans from the non-humans. Signs with symbols of aliens crossed out designate their exclusion from society including work. Reduced to scavengers, the aliens are forced to accept any food that they find. Cat food becomes a desired commodity, further contributing to their construction as non-human as well as providing a context for exploitation by a previously exploited class. ‘The Nigerians,’ headed by Mumbo, move into District 9 to sell cat food at extortionate prices and to succeed as kings of the underworld. Mumbo’s gang, rather than offering support to another exploited group, use the aliens to better their social standing. This demonstrates that there is little hope for humanity when empathy is a lost emotion. If humans cannot understand the plight of others it holds that the only thing left is to override others in the pursuit of power.

The human’s desire for power is most clearly demonstrated by their hunt to discover how to operate alien weaponry. The protagonist, Wikus van der Merwe, a field operative contracted to Multi-national United (MNU) who is charged with forcibly relocating the 1.8 million aliens to the new District 10 outside Johannesburg, interrupts classifications of human and non-human when he encounters an alien chemical which alters his biotechnology. Soon after exposure to the liquid his arm begins to mutate into that of an alien. It is at this point that Wikus becomes the most sought after commodity precisely because of his infusion with alien DNA. Despite attempts to keep the aliens outside human society, it is the transmutation of a human with alien DNA that provides the humans with their greatest technological advance. Wikus’ DNA now holds the key for how humans can operate alien weapons, a technological advance which is worth millions to MNU.

Scientists decide to harvest his body for biological material to be able to replicate his ability in humans. This procedure requires Wikus’ death, which his father-in-law, the head of MNU, permits. It would appear that humanity is no longer humane but operates according to another system of logic in which human life is subject to bio power and has no meaning except as commercial property, which legitimizes the actions of the state to put him to death.

Conceptions of the aliens as inferior beings are dispelled when Wikus discovers that under the semblance of a shack, Johnson has constructed a technologically advanced spaceship in order to return to the mother-ship and leave Earth. Whilst Johnson has used his technological knowledge for the good of his kind, human technology conversely is destructive, and even requires the destruction of the human in the form of Wikus to obtain it. The chemical that alters Wikus’ biotechnology is significantly, the same chemical required to fix the mother-ship. It would appear that the alien’s technology provides a contribution to the progression of the species, which may require the transmutation of humans to incorporate the Other in order to improve as a species. The liquid when left in human hands becomes an object whose only value is its ability to make humans more technologically advanced to destroy their fellow humans more efficiently. I have to wonder then if technology enables people to strip their humanity, or do we have an incorrect notion of what our humanity is?

Brian Christian in 'The Most Human Human' asks the central questions regarding our humanity. "How do we connect meaningfully with each other, as meaningful as possible within the limits of language and time? How does empathy work? What is the process by which someone comes into our life and comes to mean something to us? These, to me, are the tests most central questions, the most central questions of being human." The answers to these questions become very blurry in the film.

The aliens are called ‘prawns’ to emphasize their non-humanness. One thing that many of us tend to agree on is that humans differ from smart technology and other beings by our empathy, emotions and language. If we are basing it off those assumptions, the “prawns” are far more human than the humans, because they show understanding and compassion to Wikus, while the humans didn’t. They are also advanced enough to create technology, such as something that will allow them to get back to the mother-ship while living with few resources. I would presume then they could build weapons. They also how great communication capabilities and the sense of community. The “prawns” use their knowledge and technology just to get back home, rather than cause harm to the humans. This film forced me to question where the boundaries between civilized and uncivilized can be drawn and furthermore, how we can decide what is for the good of humanity when what drives humans is largely the desire for power. And in this case, a lot of power can be gained through technology. The introduction of the aliens therefore forces the audience to ask: who is human?