The novella “Proposition 23” by Efe Tobunko was published for the first time in 2012.
In the 22nd century, Lagos is the largest city in the world. Citizens can google using interconnections embedded everywhere but criminals are deprived of citizenship rights and disconnected. Lugard saw an interview with a politician on Proposition 23 and, intrigued by a slipped reference, tries googling to find out more. However, his searches are filtered and soon after that Lugard is deprived of his citizenship.
“Proposition 23” is a story with strong cyberpunk bases interpreted by Efe Tobunko in a very personal way. It’s set in Lagos, the capital city of Nigeria, in a future where people are interconnected in a way far more profound than today. The evolution of the Internet is an integral part of people’s lives, who enjoy being an everlasting part of a cybersociety which however has has its shadows.
Not all people are citizens. There are the undead, who for some reason are disconnected and are treated as pariahs. The punishment for criminals is the disconnection. A crime starts “Proposition 23”: a terrorist attack that causes the death of the more than 5,000 people. The reference to the attack against the USA on September 11, 2001 is transparent.
In this setting, Efe Tobunko tells the story of some people in the first person from their points of view. Among them there’s Lugard, who is deprived of his citizenship after doing a search on a topic definitely not acceptable to the authorities. For this reason, he must find an alternative way to find out what’s behind Proposition 23 but first he has to survive.
Through the experience of Lugard, but not only, the reader can see how in that future dystopia citizens constitute an elite that can enjoy the benefits of technology. The term “person” is obsolete: either you’re a citizen or you’re undead. As Lugard discovers at his own expense, being citizens also means not to examine carefully what the authorities do.
Despite the limitations that those who are deprived of citizenship, someone tries to rebel but how far can you go to overturn a dystopia? In “Proposition 23” the line between good and villain is really blurred, leaving the reader to think about the various ethical and moral shades of grey.
It’s a really intense story but to Efe Tobunko it seems that these cyberpunk-inspired themes are not enough. There’s also a brief digression on the future of space travel and a attempt ended with a disaster of terraforming Mars. This alone would deserve an entire novel!
“Proposition 23” is a concentration of elements that led to comparing Efe Tobunko to William Gibson but also to Aldous Huxley. I think the result of this mix of topics is really excellent so I recommend reading it, also taking advantage of the fact that it’s available in a stand-alone ebook on Amazon USA
