Necropolitics

Necropolitics (2019) by philosopher Achille Mbembe is a study of how sovereign states use death to maintain political power and control space. Mbembe examines how liberal democracy benefits some groups of people while condemning others to living conditions that mimic death. The social and political critic posits that democracies are both medicine and poison. Responding to the work of philosopher Michel Foucault, who emphasized ideas like biopower and genealogical critiques of historic themes, Mbembe traces how democratic societies are built on a foundation of war set by their colonialist roots. Although Mbembe’s text paints a dark picture of civilization’s history, he offers hope for a future in which humans reach a collective understanding of how they impact and relate to one another.

This guide uses the 2019 Duke University Press paperback edition.

Summary

In Necropolitics, African social and political critic Achille Mbembe examines how colonialism dictated the dual nature of democracy: that democratic societies benefit some while harming others. Mbembe introduces the concept of “deathworlds,” places where governments force certain populations of people to live in conditions not unlike death. He argues that racism is at the core of this duality and that colonialism has created the violent foundation that underpins modern democracy. Mbembe applies a historicist lens to examine how Western necropolitics manifests in the philosophical underpinnings of liberal democracy. He argues that the technologies of racism and colonialism uphold democracy, and he identifies the control of life and death as an inherent function of modern government.

Necropolitics is an extension of another philosopher’s work: Michel Foucault argued that when governments could no longer exercise a right to assign death sentences with impunity, they refocused their attention on what Foucault calls “biopower.” By controlling life, population, and health, governments found new ways to exert control. Mbembe suggests that Foucault’s assessment does not go far enough and that sovereign states continue to exercise control over death; it simply looks different in the modern era. His work characterizes democracy as a medicine for some and a poison for others. In addition, he addresses how political forces control space on the planet and exert power through technologies that align democracy with racism.

The work challenges accepted notions about democracy and modern governments. Mbembe emphasizes that his position as an African scholar allows him to view Western democracy objectively and to expose how colonialism makes racism and death central even in contemporary states. Mass migration and the repeopling of populations have centered space in modern democracy and political violence. Governments rely on mythologies to maintain control, and one way they accomplish this is by developing the narrative of the Other. Mbembe explains that both fear and desire drive political violence. Contemporary governments enact power over life and death in an intimate and hidden way that mirrors the more public tradition of violence and control in sovereign states.

Next, the book traces the history of the relationship between colonialism and violence and seeks the sources of contemporary forms of apartheid. Mbembe examines the role of desire, belief, and rationalism in the need for and the creation of the Other. He expands on the work of previous philosophers, such as Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, and presents a cohesive definition for his theory of necropolitics. Space, isolation, and separation became integral to the enactment of power by sovereign states. Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, Mbembe argues that modern powers rely on states of exception in which violence can be committed outside the confines of law.

Mbembe brings his arguments into a futurist context by exploring how planetary entanglement and technology will allow colonial power and violence to manifest in new ways. The author pushes back against nihilism, which he argues allows inequality and oppression to persist. The work of Frantz Fanon on the mental impact of racism provides justification for revolution and global decolonization. Mbembe proposes that caring for others is the first step toward breaking away from the oppressive technology of racism and the fear that drives the need for the Other.

The book concludes by applying a historicist lens to US slavery. The body serves as both the symbol and receiver of colonial violence and the enactment of necropolitics. Mbembe poses questions about a future after colonialism and what philosophy might look like when it escapes the racist technologies of democratic ideals like the social contract and the state of nature. Mbembe warns that democracy will continue to seek new ways to contract life and impose deathworlds on marginalized groups.