Who Should Live or Die?

Understanding the Politics of Necropolitics in John Mwakyusa’s It Can’t Be True and Yes, I Did It

Abstract

This article examines the different ways in which the postcolonial concept of necropolitics is imagined, negotiated and exercised in the context of socio-political instability. It specifically explores how Mwakyusa’s crime fiction, It Can’t Be True (2017) and Yes, I Did It (2022), problematises the concept of necropolitics in ways that suggest re-reading the postcolonial state of Uganda by underscoring power dynamics, marginalisation, corruption, and child soldiering. The paper argues that Mwakyusa’s narratives deploy the concept of necropolitics not only to unveil the crime fiction nature of the narratives, but also to suggest growth and continuous struggle in peacebuilding in the context of socio-cultural, political and economic instabilities. Through a close reading of the texts, supported by textual and contextual analysis, the paper examines how Mwakyusa’s novellas complicate the understanding of the concepts of the right to live and the right to die, in an attempt to negotiate power within the context of socio-political instability in Uganda. The paper is informed by the postcolonial theory, in particular, Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics, in exploring how different forms of power are imagined in It Can’t Be True and Yes, I Did It in ways that demonstrate power where the sovereign power can dictate how some people may live and how some must die. 

Keywords: Necropolitics, Biopower, Crime fiction, Sovereignty power, Death

https://dx.doi.org/10.56279/ummaj.v12i1.5