District 9- The Representation of South Africa

The storyline of District 9, is laden with contextual reference to the South African Apartheid.

The citizens of South Africa in the film are segregated in the same way that they were in real life before the strict rules of Apartheid were abolished. In this case, the people and Aliens (sometimes referred to as 'Prawns', a derogatory term used to describe them in the film) are living in very separate locations in the country, and under very different conditions. The Aliens, essentially living on top of each other among filth and danger, and the white SA citizens living in suburbia, where they are protected by the government and considered superior. This is very similar to the way in which black and white South Africans were separated for 50 years (1941-1991). The Aliens were forced to resettle in other places, very much like how black people had resettlement programs inflicted on them during the 60's, 70's, and 80's, where they were forced to move into their "designated groups" and the mixing of white people with a Black, Indian or any other person of colour was eventually also forbidden.

"...the allegorical overtones are inescapable in the plot about aliens who, their spaceship stranded above Johannesburg, have to endure a daily routine of unemployment, gangsterism and xenophobia in a squalid shantytown. The Prawns – as they are known in derogatory slang because of their vaguely crustacean appearance – spend their hopeless days brawling and getting high on pet food." -the Guardian

Despite there being no official mention of Apartheid and it's legacy in today's black townships, these issues are quite directly addressed by the film in many ways. The government is quite clearly corrupt, the (mostly white) members of the SA community are ignorant of the impoverished lifestyles and brutality that the Aliens face on a daily basis, and they see them as villains who have invaded their space (when, in actual fact, the Alien ship became stranded over Jo'Burg and so, they probably did not end up there by choice.) All of these elements reflect real life too closely for them not be connected. The Alien's are portrayed as the enemy- where there seems to be a role reversal in the depicted society-, when really the attention should be turned to the disinformation on behalf of the government and the ignorance of the people.