Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics.

 Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics (2019) presents an elaborate analysis and critique of the contemporary forms and methods of the forceful “subjugation of life to the power of death,” (11) and the mechanisms through which power dictates who may (or must) live and who ought to die. The central theme of the work is the use of political power to enclose life and to dictate that some may live at the expense of others’ deaths. Mbembe terms such expressions of power necropolitical. In this book, he draws on various historical as well as contemporary examples, ranging from (neo)colonial occupation and slavery to contemporary warfare, genocides, and terror. As such Mbembe’s book covers topics of democratic perpetrators, systems of perpetration, as well as individual perpetrators. His book presents an intervention into the study of systemic violence in the context of contemporary war, racism, and fascism. To do so Mbembe draws on examples of structural violence across the world, such as the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the War on Terror, the Crimean war, and colonial wars and violence in Algeria, Indochina, and Angola. 

Achille Mbembe is a prominent philosopher, critic, and political theorist from Cameroon. He received his doctorate in history from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and is a professor of political science and philosophy at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, as well as visiting Professor at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. His work mainly focusses on political violence, postcolonialism, African history, and political science. His previous works such as On the Postcolony (2001) and Critique of Black Reason (2017) have been widely recognized and acclaimed for their profound insights in political theory and postcolonial philosophy. 

Central to Mbembe’s conception of necropolitics is the notion of sovereignty as power that is exercised to gain control over mortality and the ability to define life as the “deployment and manifestation of power” (66). As such Mbembe’s work draws on Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, as the “domain of life over which power has taken control” (66). Mbembe argues that Foucault’s notion of biopower is insufficient in contemporary forms of systemic violence, illustrating throughout his book how sovereignty exercises its power by establishing zones where death is wielded as the ultimate tool of control and resistance. Mbembe’s work too recalls that of Giorgio Agamben, who examined such a Foucauldian notion through his concept of the ‘homo sacer’ to trace the manifestations of unchecked power to kill and biological justifications for human ‘extermination.’ Mbembe asserts that the camp-form, encompassing spaces such as refugee camps, prisons, and marginalized urban areas, has emerged as a dominant method of governing marginalized populations. Hence, for Mbembe, necropolitics involves the political shaping of spaces and identities straddling between life and death that are deeply rooted in colonial practices and white supremacy. 

Necropolitics comprises of a collection of essays that delve into themes of political violence, post-colonialism, and what Mbembe terms the “nocturnal body of democracy” (15). According to Mbembe, the current political climate has seen a resurgence of racist, nationalist, and violent ideologies that are amplified by nativist and nationalist policies. A range of methods of establishing “death-worlds,” these being the manners in which populations are subjected to conditions akin to ‘living death,’ are discussed in the book (92). In doing so, Mbembe touches on a number of characteristics of necropolitics and its propensity for mass ‘death’ production. Examples of these noted in the book are state terror, the proliferation of violence beyond the state’s monopoly through privatization of military and surveillance means, the normalization of enmity, increased commodification of human life, and the predation of natural resources.  

It must be noted that Necropolitics requires its readers to have some knowledge of critical theory and philosophy, in particular with regards to biopolitics. The book can be a core text for scholars of perpetrator studies, conflict studies, and postcolonial studies, as it provides a detailed, though at times convoluted discussion of systems of necropolitical power in our contemporary world. As such Necropolitics presents an essential, critical lens through which to examine contemporary forms of systemic violence and the rise of democratic perpetrators in relation to themes of imperial and colonial legacies and large-scale surveillance, as well as contemporary social issues such as the migrant crisis. Mbembe’s work therefore is an essential tool for students and researchers aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which global powers enforce the production of death. 

Author of this entry: Mohana Zwaga. 

Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics. Duke University Press, 2019.