The Prawns of District 9
Aliens confined to a South African internment camp.
They are an insectile and crustaceous species who arrived over Johannesburg, South Africa, in an alternate 1982 aboard a malfunctioning mothership. Discovered to be diseased and malnourished, they were confined by the South African government to an internment camp called District 9, where they became subjects of segregation, exploitation, and medical experimentation. Their plight serves as an allegory for apartheid-era forced removals and contemporary xenophobia.
- species
- Insectile/crustaceous extraterrestrial
- first appearance
- 1982 (alternate timeline)
- homeworld
- Unknown (mothership departed Earth at film's end)
- known for
- Being derogatorily called 'prawns'; confined to District 9 camp; subject of medical torture and forced relocation
- notable individuals
- Christopher Johnson, CJ, Paul
Lore & Background
The Prawns arrived in 1982 when their mothership stalled over Johannesburg. Inside, over a million starved, insectoid and crustacean-like beings were found. The South African government relocated them to a refugee camp called District 9, which over 28 years became a ghetto and shanty town. Humans viewed them as filthy, violent animals who bled resources, and they were derogatorily called 'prawns'—a reference to the Parktown prawn, a pest species in South Africa. They were known to consume canned cat food. Three Prawns—Christopher Johnson, his young son CJ, and Paul—searched a refuse dump for Prawn technology. Christopher spent 20 years synthesizing fuel from the dump's contents to reactivate a dropship that could dock with the mothership. During a forced relocation led by MNU bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe, Wikus accidentally sprayed the fuel onto himself, triggering his transformation into a Prawn. The MNU performed grisly medical experiments, including vivisections, on the Prawns to study their biologically restricted weaponry. Christopher eventually escaped with CJ via the dropship, which was levitated by a tractor beam back to the mothership, which left Earth. The remaining Prawns were moved to a labour camp called District 10. Wikus, fully transformed into a Prawn, was last seen crafting metal flowers for his wife in a wrecking yard.
Reader's Guide
The Prawns of District 9 are significant as a fictional stand-in for marginalized human groups, particularly those affected by apartheid-era forced removals. The Prawns' internment and subsequent relocation to a labour camp mirror contemporary evictions in post-apartheid South Africa, such as the Joe Slovo settlement and Blikkiesdorp. The film uses speciesism to explore themes of racism, xenophobia, and social segregation, with the derogatory term 'prawn' substituting for racial slurs. The Prawns' story also highlights medical torture and the dehumanization of asylum seekers. The Prawns remain a potent symbol of how science fiction can critique real-world injustices.
Did You Know?
- The Prawns are derogatorily called 'prawns' after the Parktown prawn, a king cricket species considered a pest in South Africa.
- Christopher Johnson spent 20 years synthesizing fuel from a refuse dump to reactivate a dropship and return to the mothership.
- After the mothership left Earth, the remaining Prawns were moved to a labour camp called District 10.
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