haitian vodou_the religion of zombies _li

Haitian Vodou: The Religion of Zombies

Connie O’Boyle

O’Boyle 1 Haitian Vodou: The Religion of Zombies

Introduction:

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the majority of people today became, for lack of better terminology,

“obsessed” with zombies. We see them every day on Facebook, on bumper stickers, on popular TV shows like “The

Walking Dead,” and in movies such as Zombieland and Sean of the Dead. These days, you can take your pick. The

fact is, they have become so much a part of popular culture that I doubt anyone has ever paused to consider the

legitimacy of their existence or their origins. In truth, the zombie is as much a very real and large part of Haitian life

as say Sasquatch is to us in the United States. Numerous “verified” accounts exist which have either been

transmitted orally as first-hand accounts or recorded as sightings in newspapers and media, but can we definitively

say that they exist? Most people see Vodou1 in terms of popular portrayals of a dark and mysterious man in a dark

room using “black magic” to cast spells, hexes, and curses as well as images of demon possessions and witchdoctors

communing with and controlling the dead —any number of these things come to mind. However, there is much

more to Vodou than what our culture perceives there to be. Only in recent years has interest been revived. Not many

see its “true face”. In its purest sense, Vodou is neither something to be feared nor labeled as “black magic.” It is

deeply spiritual. It is a source of comfort, protection, and healing for many.

Oftentimes, it is labeled “voodoo,” “vodun,” “vodu,” and “hoodoo” among others, but scholarly agreement

seems to rest on the term “vodou” as it seems to be the most historically accurate; throughout this paper, I will use

the same term. In researching this topic, I began with Harvard scholar Wade Davis’ book, Passage of Darkness,2 as

a reference point for source material. I then expanded mu search, cross-referencing names and terms, until I

discovered current discussions on the topic. But in searching for sources, I encountered most of the same issues

other recent scholars who have attempted this task have met with. Like my more recent predecessors, most of what I

found as potentially useful was written in French or Haitian Creole and therefore, was inaccessible to me as very

few translatable copies seem to be in existence. Had I attempted to translate them myself, much would have been

lost or incorrect. I also encountered discrepancies in terminology, spelling, and usage for key words and concepts;

throughout this work, I have chosen to use the most common spellings and usages to refer to such things as the

1 Definition: a.) Wade Davis. The Passage of Darkness (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 35-36. – a

complex, mystical worldview, a system of beliefs concerning the relationship between man, nature, and the supernatural forces of

the universe. [It] cannot be abstracted from the day-to-day life of the believers. In Haiti, as in Africa, there is no separation between the sacred and the secular, between the holy and the profane, between material and the spiritual. Every dance, every

song, every action is but a particle of the whole … [It] not only embodies a set of spiritual concepts, it prescribes a way of life, a

philosophy, and a code of ethics that regulate social behavior; b.) Claudine Michel. “Vodou in Haiti: Way of Life and Mode of

Survival,” in Voodoo in Haitian Culture: Invisible Powers 2006, ed. Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith (New York:

Palgrave MacMillan, 2006), 29. – a coherent and comprehensive system and worldview in which every person and everything is

sacred and treated accordingly. In Vodun, everything in the world — be it plant, animal, or mineral — shares basically similar

chemical, physical, and/or genetic properties. This unity of all things translates into an overarching belief in the sanctity of life,

not so much for the thing as for the spirit of the thing. This cosmological unity [translates] into a vaunted African humanism in

which social institutions are elaborated and in which the living, the dead, and the unborn play equally significant roles in the

unbroken historical chain. Thus, all action, speech, and behavior achieve paramount significance for the individual and the

community of which the individual is a part, Bellegarde-Smith; c.) qtd. in Ibid. 30. It permeates the land, and, in a sense, it

springs from the land. It is not a system imposed from above, but one which pushes out from below. It is a thing of the family, a

rich and complex inheritance from man’s own ancestors. [The] priests [do not] control and direct its course. They, like the lower

peasant, simply move about within it and make use of its resources. Vodou is strong and it cannot die easily, Drum and the Hoe,

Harold Courlander. 2 Note: This is actually his second book. Passage of Darkness (1988) was written after his first, The Serpent and the Rainbow

(1984), which covered the same material in a casual narrative/dialogue style. Passage … discusses the same material, but goes

into a more technical, formal description of his material because it was written in conjunction with his dissertation.


names of Vodoun gods and the different aspects of the spirit and soul. Despite its challenges, through developing an

understanding of Vodou as a religious culture, this essay will examine the influence of slavery and Christianity in

the development of Vodou and conclude with the unusual practice of the zombification ritual and how it influences

both the lives of the Haitian and the Vodounist. I will argue that Vodou not only offers a religious way of life and

understanding to the predominately poor, peasant, population of Haiti, but also, although rare, zombies do actually

exist as a part of Haitian life as both spiritual beings and man-made creations resulting from a combination of magic,

sorcery, and science.

The Work and Significance of Wade Davis

In the early 1980s, Harvard trained anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis ventured into Haiti to

explore the ethnobiology of the Haitian zombie in an effort to get to the bottom of the question: Do zombies exist

and if so, how, exactly, do they come into being? His research was prompted by the first medically documented case

of zombification in Port-au-Prince of one Clairvious Narcisse. Prompted by the prominent psychopharmacologist

Nathan S. Kline and father of ethnobotany Richard Evans Schultes, his journey and research culminated in the

discovery of “zombie powder(s)” used by special Vodoun priests called bokor to create their zombie “slaves.” His

goal was to determine through empirical analysis the causal agents of such claims by discovering the plant(s)

responsible in the previously hypothesized poison used by the bokor in their rituals. In short, he sought a reason for

the phenomenon commonly associated with the magical and supernatural aspects of Vodou; he believed there was

entirely separate, scientific reason for this phenomenon. His work is significant because he traveled to Haiti and

infiltrated the deepest aspects of Vodou culture with the sole intention of discovering a scientific reason for the

rumored existence of the Haitian zombie. Davis was convinced that their existence could not be attributed so easily

to the magical or supernatural; there had to be an empirical explanation, a botanical one. He did not leave empty

handed. Indeed, Davis claimed to have left Haiti with the knowledge of the ritual and tangible proof of a non-

magical means of creation in the form of zombie powder samples. For this reason, his work was not only considered

groundbreaking, but highly controversial. He had succeeded where other, more reputable persons had failed. It was

his success that thrust him into the spotlight and exposed his work to criticism of both his methods and his results.

Regardless, he contributed something to the world which none of his predecessors had accomplished by that time.

His determination thrust him deep into the Vodoun way of life and determined that a poison did, in fact,

exist. His conclusions were that it was another agent, tetrodotoxin (TTX), found in various types of puffer fish, used

in conjunction with various plants and other agents that he sought. He believed that the poison in the puffer fish

acted as the causal agent, the key, to the “zombification” of the desired person. However, when tested, the samples

Davis was able to send to the United States displayed little or no sign of TTX toxin which led to multiple, scathing

critiques of his work in Haiti. William Booth accused him of using unscientific methods, withholding negative data,

and committing a fraud of science while buying his way into certain cults to obtain results all in the pursuit of fame

and fortune.3 Of course, this led to a rather unflattering controversy leading some to argue that his work was flawed

and erroneous; he had either fabricated or falsified his data based upon the little, or lack thereof, of the toxin’s

presence in his samples leading others to claim that the powders could not produce the characteristics so commonly

3 William Booth. “Voodoo Science,” Science, New Series 240, no. 4850 (1988): 274-277.


attributed to Haitian zombies in popular descriptions. Davis’ reply was that the ritual or the powder did not need to

be a success every time, only one success every so often would be enough to bolster the reputation of the priest and

support the belief in zombies.4 Complicating the claim that zombies could not be created through the use of the

zombie powder are the large number of sightings and first-hand accounts which have been recorded in Haiti. A

further problem arises when one considers the different views of Vodou as religion. Some argue that the bokor and

zombie practices, as well as other forms of “dark magic” and witchcraft, are entirely separate and not at all related to

Vodou, but most sources seem to agree that both coexist together as a means of maintaining a balance between the

good and evil magic. But one of Vodou’s earliest and greatest proponents, Maya Deren, seems unsure: “Certainly,

the great loa will have nothing to do with the bocor [who] deals in zombies and baka.”5 How then do we reconcile a

cause for such phenomenon with the belief and satisfy the critics who argue there is no such thing as a zombie and

therefore, the “known” causal agent doesn’t exist? We must ask: who is right? Davis, because he lived among the

Haitian people, researched and witnessed Vodou practices and rituals, or his critics who argue that his data is false?

And if Davis’ research was flawed and neither plant nor fish toxins support an empirical explanation for the zombie

phenomenon, then it is, in fact, a magical occurrence. And if neither, how do we account for the large number of

“documented” cases of such beings or the fear the prospect of such a fate induces among the Haitian population?

Before we can attempt to answer such questions, we must first attain an understanding of the complexities of the

Vodoun culture as religion in order to explore Vodou as the mysterious and religious belief system which has

aroused such keen interest and skepticism.

History, Evolution, and Religion

After the colonization of Haiti and the importation of slaves from Africa onto the island, the various

cultures began to blend and deviate from their original African counterparts. As a result, Vodou was birthed as a

response and coping mechanism to a new way of life as a slave in a foreign land. Its very foundation stems from a

longing for the “known” of home. The religion’s primary influences derive from and closely resemble African

traditions of those peoples from West Africa such as Benin, Borneo, Congo, Fon-Dahomey, Fulas, Ibo, Mandingos,

and Yoruba tribes to name a few (Brown, Davis, Ferère, Hurston, Murrell).6 This deep-rooted cultural tradition, way

of life, and religion which grew from the longing to embrace those parts of a lost homeland which were most

comforting. As such, an entirely separate culture has developed within Haiti which animates the blending and

aspects of the lost African pasts of the Haitian slaves, and it remains a prominent feature of Haitian life today,

although it has begun to fade away.

From the beginning of their lives in Haiti, African slaves were faced with one trial after another — loss of

home and loved ones, loss of religion, loss of freedom, oppression, deprivation, integration, and beatings. As a

4 Wade Davis. “Zombification,” Science, New Series 240, no. 4860 (1988): 715-16. 5 Maya Deren. Divine Horsemen (New Paltz, New York: McPherson & Company, 1953), 75-77. Note: baka are malevolent

spirits contained in the form of animals. 6 Karen McCarthy Brown, “Afro-Caribbean Spirituality: A Haitian Case Study,” in Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture: Invisible

Powers 2006, ed. Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006), 1.; Davis, 25-26;

Gérard Ferère, “Haitian Voodoo: Its True Face,” Caribbean Quarterly 24 no. ¾ (1978): 37-47.; Zora Neale Hurston. Tell My

Horse (Berkeley: Lippencott & Crowell Publishers, 1938), 180.; Nathaniel Samuel Murrell. Afro-Caribbean Religions

(Philidelphia: Temple University Press, 2010), 27-60. Almost all of sources reference the same origins, but these were the most

consistent and most specific.


means to escape, both literally and figuratively, many ran to the mountains of the north and joined with others in

order practice their ancestral rites away from observation and bond with likeminded individuals. Over time, the

blended fruit of their machinations became known as Vodou. As the years passed, various attempts were made to

convert the slaves to Christianity or suppress their beliefs and practices indefinitely. It wasn’t until the greatest and

most successful slave revolt in history, led by Boukman Dutty in 1803 which marked the beginning of the Haitian

Revolution, that Vodou once again began to thrive and the peasant and slave populations developed a marked

identity. But the effects of their experience were evident in the blending of Catholic iconography with Vodoun loas.

The explanation for this was seen in their representation. For example, the loa Ogou7 is associated with the serpent

ergo, an icon of St. Patrick, who is also associated with a serpent, acts as the physical representation of Ogou. This

pattern continues with specific characteristics of other prominent loas being represented by icons of other Catholic

saints who share common attributes. But despite this evident contamination, African origins remain dominant in

Vodoun practices. The Rada loas represent the “good,” healing magic, herbal knowledge and benevolent spirits of

the water and the Petro represent intense drum beats and the loas associated with fire, anger, and violence, the

“dark,” evil magic of many Congolese tribes.8 Through the blending of a lost heritages, present experience, and

outside influence, a religion completely unique to Haiti evolved, but not one as heavily influenced by Christianity as

it may appear. Deren voiced this distinction most clearly when she said, “the fact that Haitian informants themselves

transpose their concepts to Christian equivalents without being aware of the discrepancies between them accounts

for a good deal of the misinterpretation of those beliefs in the literature on Haiti.”9 The collective body of thought

and belief that is Vodou is an intricate blend of ancestor worship, symbol, ceremony, ritual, and belief through

which deceased ancestors become gods (loas), the people gain support and protection, and order and morality are

established within a unique social construct. “Social institutions are elaborated [in] which the living, the dead, and

the unborn play equally significant roles … It springs from the land … it is not imposed from above, [but pushes]

out from below … it permeates all aspects of [existence] from the highest forms of interactions with the divine to the

most mundane and profane matters … [it follows] African derived principles: holistic conception of life, human-

centered orientation, centrality of the community, honor and respect for elders, beneficence, forbearance,

forgiveness, and a sense of justice.”10

Vodou is home to hundreds of loas; nothing can be done without first consulting them and receiving their

blessing. This is done through ceremonies which honor them and a ritual known roughly as “feeding the gods.” The

loas can be selfish and demanding, and each one possesses distinct characteristics and tastes. They offer comfort,

protection, and healing but can be vengeful when necessary. Many are considered to be the spirits of the first

African ancestors and retain the names of the African deities they represent. The spirits of deceased houngans

(priests) and mambos (priestesses) are believed to become loas after they have served their time in the Gine, Africa,

7 A loa is an ancestral spirit deity who is worshiped and revered as a god. Each loa has specific characteristics, wants, needs, and

desires, especially when it comes to food offerings and sacrifice. No deed, good or bad, can come to pass without the blessing of

the loa who lords over the particular domain, i.e. the dead and the cemetery are associated with Gedes, BaronSemedi, and Papa

Legbo, sometimes Ogou as well. Ogou is the spirit of war and anger and/or revolution, depending upon context and source. 8 Brown, 18.; Davis, 274.; Hurston, Chap. XII. 9 Deren, 17. 10 Michel, 30.


a lake which exists deep below the earth, serving as home to the loas, where the spirits of the dead travel once their

spirit is released from its corporeal body. It not just the souls of the priests/priestesses which travel to the lake of the

dead; all souls go there and live under the water for at least one year if able. At the end of one year, a special

ceremony for the dead is held to recall the spirits of the revered houngans/mambos and loved ones during which

Vodounists are able to communicate with the loas and spirits of the dead through ritual possession.11

By far, however, the whole of Vodoun thought and belief is by far too vast and complex to attempt to

explain in any depth, or for that matter, thoroughly grasp and understand, in just a few pages. An interesting

example of this can be found in George Eaton Simpson’s article “The Belief System Haitian Vodun” in which he

has compiled a near complete listing of all the loas, their names, functions, characteristics, powers, food preferences

and so forth and Davis compiled a hierarchial structure of Vodoun priests and mambos which ranges from an

emperor at the top, a soldier at the bottom, and everything in between.12 When considering Vodou in this light, its

gods, ceremonies, rituals, symbols, spirit possessions, its dance and drums, and all of the complex features which

make it Vodou, fit rather nicely within what has been generally accepted as the “universal” definition of religion, if

one exists, of Clifford Geertz, who has said religion is “a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful,

pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of

existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem

uniquely realistic.”13

But while I do believe Vodou is religion, there is not a definition narrow enough nor broad enough to fully

capture its essence, but there are a few things of note worth mentioning. “True” Vodou consists of good, healing,

and preventative magic, practiced by the houngan, the good priest; the dark, mysterious, and feared magic is

reserved for the bokor or sorcerer. The latter of which is a necessary evil which has been tolerated, but feared. The

Vodounist believes that a balance between good and evil must be maintained, and with such a belief comes the

realization that both must exist in order to “maintain the balance” between the light and the dark, the good and the

bad of the world. Like many other “pagan” religions, not only healing based, but priests rely heavily on an

exceptional knowledge of plant and animal toxins. The collective body of thought and belief that is Vodou is such a

vast and complex blend of ancestor worship, symbol, ritual, and belief through which deceased ancestors become

spirit gods, the loas. Vodou enforces filial piety, strict morals and generosity. As do its African counterparts, it

stresses goodness and humanity. There is an importance on land and having “roots.” There is an almost symbolic

importance to the number three. In almost every ceremony, rite, or ritual I read, there was an instruction with “three”

in it: hit this three times, pour this over your head three times, jump backward three times, take three sips of this, and

so on. I could not find an explanation for this. However, for every occurrence and usage of “three,” within the

11 Brown, Hurston, Deren. This body of information came primarily from Hurston, but is essentially a culmination of all three works. 12George Eaton Simpon, “The Belief in System in Haitian Vodun,” American Anthropologist 47, no.1 (1945): 35-59.; Davis, 250. 13 Clifford Geertz. “Religion as Cultural System,” in A Reader to the Anthropology of Religion 2002, ed. Michael Lambek,

(Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 63.


houngan’s or bokor’s instruction is clearly stated the “why,” such as “hit this three times with your axe to notify the

soul of ...” or jump backward three times to prevent ...”14

In the earlier decades of the twentieth century and into the latter half when Davis traveled to Haiti, it

appears that Vodou, Haiti’s most unique identifier, was still thriving among the peasant population. So how does

Western civilization view Vodou now in modern times? It’s much the same as in colonial times, and I would think

that media and pop culture say enough. In today’s time, it seems that the oppressive force of Christianity is now

winning the battle between the “true” religion and the “pagan” as more and more peasants are forced into the urban

centers as their land either becomes unworkable or is taken from them. As the shift occurs, more and more

Vodounists find themselves converting to Catholicism and ever so slowly, Vodou is disappearing. But I fear, that it

has been the United States which has had the most damaging effect on the religion. As mentioned earlier, Vodou has

become quite the icon of popular culture, portrayed first as the source of all evil and darkness, vengeance and death.

Indeed, it has been perceived as the harbinger of demons and fear. Sympathetic to the Haitian plight, Murrell

describes this best when he references the U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915-1946) and the reports sent back to the

States when he writes, “reports of the living-dead walking the streets in a dazed stupor were much a source of much

hype and stereotype … Haiti [is] the dark side and ‘heady substratum of Africa,’ a land of zombies, phantoms,

blood-sucking vampires, sorcerers, walking headless corpses, cannibals, werewolves, and the burning of witches”

were common occurrences in U.S. headlines.15 Such opinions are in stark contrast to the informed foreigner. Deren,

Hurston, Brown, and many others all offer favorable views of both the culture and the religion; in truth, witchcraft,

sorcery, secret societies, and zombies were mentioned by all, but all agree that Vodou consists of “good” magic,

spirituality, protection, healing, and a deep, familial moral and ethical code.

Christians might ask how a person can possess two souls or what god would punish a girl for being a virgin

when she died, but I doubt similar questions would be received kindly by the devout. They are likely to claim that

Vodoun practices and beliefs are outdated, or “pagan” and “heathen” with its many gods, initiations, rituals, and

magic. But to that, one might argue that Christians are guilty of such things as well. In the Middle Ages, Christians

were also guilty of performing magical acts for purposes of healing and protection. To this day, Christian rituals are

performed in church, at home, and observed on the calendar. To this we must ask why one belief system should be

more privileged over another. Although it has been human nature since the dawn of time, we must ask, “What gives

another “religion” dominion over another and the right to attempt to stamp it out of existence?

The Soul, the Person, and the Zombie

The Bororo Example:

“I am a parrot.” This is how the Bororo view themselves, their sense of identity and personhood. In his

article named after this very statement, Smith believes:

“when pressed, they speculate that members of their tribe will become other species of birds [after they

die], that Negroes will become black vultures and the white man would probably become a white heron.

14 This information is a culmination of every source (and then some) referenced or read for this document; therefore, there are

simply too many to cite individually. For further reading and/or verification, please refer to the “Bibliography” and “For Further

Reading” sections. 15 Murrell, 68.


…

The Bororo consider, therefore, that their human shape is transitory: midway between that of a fish (whose

name they have adopted for themselves) and the arara (in whose guise they will complete the cycle of their

transmigrations).”16

And continues later with:

Von den Steinen’s text [argues]: ‘According to the Bororo, man and arara are two different manifestations

of one and the same entity. Man is potentially an arara; this quite a different thing from stating that he is

one actually, here and now.”17

And moves on to Lévy-Bruhl’s most famous postulate, loi de participation:

‘In the collective representations of primitive mentality objects, beings, phenomena can be, though in a way

incomprehensible to us, both themselves and something other than themselves.”18

***

Before returning to previous example, we must note that the key to understanding the zombie is the belief

that a zombie is a body without a soul — a soulless being — but the Haitian concept of soul is also a means in which

to view the person. A body lacking all soul and spirit is one of the contributing factors of fear among the Haitian

populace and why Vodounists go to such extremes to protect their dead from zombification. In order to prevent a

person from becoming zombie, the soul, or ti bon ange, must be protected. Ideally, this type of precaution is taken

before death very early in life. The person consults the houngan who then cleanses and purifies the believer after

which, a ceremony is performed to remove the ti bon ange and safely store it in a special jar to either be hidden by

the believer to whom it belongs or left with the houngan for safe keeping. If such precautions are not taken before

death, an attempt to capture the lingering soul before the bokor occurs and the body of the deceased is either

poisoned or mutilated in a variety of ways to prevent the bokor’s sorcery and acquisition of a zombie. Such actions

are taken as decapitation, running a daggar through the heart, breaking of bones, or a bullet placed in the temple in

hope that the sorcerer will become discouraged and leave the deceased at rest. Interestingly enough, in some cases,

the bokor desires a specific person so badly that disfigurement means little as is described by an interesting report of

a beautiful young girl whose neck had been broken and yet was resurrected as zombie which is recounted in one of

the many borrowed first-hand accounts recorded by Métraux:

VALLEY OF MARBIAL

A girl engaged to a young man rejected to advances of a powerful houngan who turned aside muttering

vague threats. Several days later, the girl took ill and died in the hospital at Jacmel. Her body was taken to

Marbial for burial. The coffin, as it happened, was too short and her neck had to be bent that the body

might fit in. During the wake, someone accidentally dropped a lit cigarette on the foot of the deceased

causing a small burn. Two months later, rumors passed that the girl had been seen alive in the company of

16 Jonathan A. Smith, MAP IS NOT TERRITORY: Studies in the Histories of Religions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1972): 267-68. 17 Ibid., 272. 18 Ibid., 274.


the houngan. No one believed it until months later with the advent of the anti-superstition campaign the

houngan grew nervous, repented and set his zombies free. The girl was returned home, where she was

recognized by all not only because of her physical appearance, but also because of her lame neck and the

scar she bore on her foot. She never recovered her sanity.19

Interestingly enough, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Haitians believe in zombies. Davis notes that

the greatest fear in Haiti is not the threat of the zombie itself, it is becoming a zombie.20 Despite attempts to verify

the appearance of zombies in other cultures, it appears that the creation and belief in the zombie corpus, the flesh

and blood zombie, appears to be of uniquely Haitian origin but has spread throughout parts of the Caribbean. The

derivation of the word continues to be under debate among scholars, but it is most likely that the term nzambi, taken

from the Congolese, is the closest we can ascertain. It should be clarified that Haitians believe in a “dual soul.” That

means that the body is in possession of two spirits — the ti bon ange (the little good angel) and the gros bon ange

(the big good angel). The ti bon ange is associated with the cold, or the water and can be referred to as zombi, the

“spirit” zombie. The gros bon ange is associated with the animation of a person, his being, and can travel away from

the body during dreams; it can also survive for long periods away from the body. The ti bon ange, or soul, can be

captured and only then can the corpse body be raised and become the flesh and blood zombie.21

When we consider how Haitians view the soul, their view is not all that different from the Bororo example

above. In a Haiti, a person is always in possession of two souls, two persons, and a corporeal body. Vodounists

believe that when they die, their gro bon ange travels home to the water in Africa and their ti bon ange stays and

lingers around the body until it is either captured or n’ame22 passes into the earth. At all times, a person can be both

themselves and that of another, a loa dwelling in the waters of Africa. Should the ti bon ange not be salvaged from

the graveyard and it is captured by a bokor, a person can be both a hollow, soulless zombie and a spirit and soul

contained in a jar and residing with the bokor.23 Of course, this is just one view of how a zombie comes into being.

***

Vodou is very clearly an amalgamation of all the various African tribes from which slaves were taken and

deposited in Haiti, but I particularly favor a heavy Congolese influence. The above examples serve as evidence of

the rich similarities of thought and belief held among the various tribes of the Congo region. While it is quite

obvious that some Vodoun beliefs and practices are very different from the given examples, they stand as proof of

the blending of the original systems of belief into the unique religion which is Haitian Vodou. As a result, it became

possible for those beliefs and practices to expand within new surroundings while building upon the old and thus lead

19 Qtd. in Davis, 63. Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti 1972. 20 Davis, 9. 21 Brown, Davis, Hurston, Murrell. Note: There is some confusion regarding these terms. In Davis’ account, he voluntarily notes

that he has interchanged the two terms to suit is purpose, but that the change was necessary and irrelevant; however, I have also

noticed discrepancies in these few sources listed as well as others. The discrepancy lies determining which soul becomes zombie – they appear to be split. Roughly half say the “little big angel,” or spirit zombie, becomes the physical and the other half say the

“little big angel.” For the rest of the discussion, I will use the ti bon ange when referring to the absent spirit/soul. 22 Term used to describe the spirit of the flesh which allows each cell of the body to function; it gives the body life long after

death; it is considered a gift from God, which left undisturbed will pass into the earth. It is used by Brown, Davis, and Alfred Métraux. 23 Davis, 186.


to the unique belief and creation of the Haitian zombie. It is in the evolution of Vodou that I believe Tambiah’s

thoughts may be accurately applied here:

A hallmark of man’s history in society has been the flexibility in the uses of his so-called innate capacities.

Man’s brain development placing a reliance on learning capacities and memory storage, and enabling him

to be reflexive, to indulge in meta-learning, and so on, has simply expanded his creative horizons. Again

early technology, which began as an accessory to man’s physical skills and signified a state when man

adapted to nature, became capable as it became more complex and inventive, to progressively free man

from certain physical and ecological constraints, such that man has ended up by adapting nature to his

needs rather than by adapting himself to nature … What the sociobiologists have not grasped is that human

adaptation is an open-ended process that reacts to historical contingencies and circumstances; that the

constraints human beings in groups or societies confront appear at several levels - not only at the

biological, but also at the ecological once an ecology has been evolved in conjunction with a technology

and a pattern of human cooperation, and then again at the institutional level, once a whole complex of

political, religious, and social arrangements are in place (emphasis mine).24

Colonial Vodounists drew from the experience of slavery and previous knowledge of their ancestors to add to the

already immense base of plant and animal knowledge known to them and incorporated aspects native to Haiti to

build and modify both their knowledge base and their rituals to suit their new life in the new world. In so doing, they

created a rich network of social, religious, and political arrangements unique to their new position and standing in

the world, and the most unique feature of all: the zombie.

Wade Davis and the Haitian Zombie

Whether or not the existence of the mythological zombie of lore exists, I cannot say for certain. However, it

is not a scenario which can easily be discounted; it is still a mystery worthy of possibility. But it appears that the

most likely scenario for the recurrence and documentation of zombie lore lies not in the magical or supernatural

essence of the ritual, but rather in the agents which contribute to the creation of a potent poison resulting in a death-

like state or trance. A couple famous occurrences which spring to mind here: Snow White and Romeo & Juliet.

Granted, my examples are fictional characters, but the famous authors of such stories could contrive a

believable “fake” death, Davis’ claim does not seem so farfetched. His attempt at discovering an empirical source of

zombification creates both a sense of relief and skepticism. Skeptics of the supernatural are relieved that the

seemingly unexplainable is explained in terms they can not only grasp, but attempt to replicate, and modicum of

relief is given to those who fear the unexplainable by offering them a tangible explanation. But this conclusion does

not explain the spirit zombie or the influence of the ritual itself. While we may have the “recipe” for creating a

zombie, is it possible that you or I could create our own without the power of the loas and belief behind us? Would

we want to, or would we simply encounter an epic fail? Should we attempt to try, would the moral and ethical

ramifications be too much for us to consider? Or would we mull it over in our minds and argue amongst ourselves

whether or not the conclusion is satisfactory or functional?

24Stanley J. Tambiah. Magic, science, religion, and the scope of rationality (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990): 113.


Davis witnessed multiple preparation techniques and noted the ingredients in each one. The common

denominators in varying combinations in the more potent powders containing puffer fish, known to contain

tetrodotoxin, were several poisonous plant species, some of which were unknown, human remains in the form of

bone shavings or dried flesh, sea toads, two types of puffer fish, tarantulas, snakes, and various animal parts and

species. Davis stresses that the creation of the powder is a magical act and an example of preparation would be as

follows:

The bokor went down to the beach at dawn, as the fishermen hauled in their nets so that he might

salvage three or four small puffer fish that would normally be discarded. When possible, the bokor obtained

from the fishermen a specimen of [worm] which he called a worm, but [at other] times he substituted a

nonvenomous terrestrial snake of any sort. Meanwhile, a village youth was dispatched to capture a

specimen of the large buga toad as well as several lizards and tarantulas.

In the afternoon the toad and the sea snake were placed in a sealed container, to be left overnight

before they were killed the next morning. The bokor believed that the snake enraged the toad, increasing

the power of the poison. In the morning, the bokor’s assistant killed the animals and placed them in the sun

to dry. At dusk, the two plant ingredients were collected. Both were members of the [legume] family [and]

both the legume and its seeds were required.

The final ingredient – and the one the bokor considers the most deadly – is the crushed and ground

remains of a human cadaver. Fresh material is considered the most deadly and the graveyards are raided in

stealth in the early hours after midnight. A coffin is disinterred, placed in a burlap sack and carried back to

the hounfour, where it is once again buried in the courtyard. There it must remain for forty-eight hours.

… The potion itself is prepared in an isolated scrubland away from human settlement. The bokor

placed a thunderstone in an enamel dish and covered it with a magic potion. [He] struck a match in the dish

and the potion exploded into flame. Dipping his right hand into it, he set his own skin on fire with alcohol

and then passed the flame to each of us, slapping our joints and rubbing our skin vigorously … tied scarves

around our faces … and coated our exposed skin with an oily aromatic emulsion.

Earlier in the day his assistant had dug up the cadaver in the courtyard with great caution, his hand

dripping with oil, the bokor had lifted pieces of the child’s skull and brain into a glass container [and now]

placed these fragments along with the carcasses of the lizards, sea snake, and tarantulas on a grill …25

The ritual goes on for another two pages, but this is enough to give an idea of what Davis means by “magical act,”

as well as the ingredients, time, and effort which goes into a ritual such as this. There are also protective potions and

rituals which must be followed to the letter both before and after the creation and administration of the poison to the

intended victim. If the instructions are not followed precisely, the act can rebound with terrible consequences to the

person requesting the ritual. The above mentioned ritual is comparatively tame in relation to others he recanted in

Passage of Darkness. While his work may have been biased, I do not believe that it was entirely erroneous nor was

it fabricated. However, his details, descriptions, and facts to make for a rather convincing scenario, not to mention,

25 Davis, Chap. 4. Note: A hounfour a Vodoun temple; thunderstones are sacred and forged by Sobo and Shango, the spirits of

thunder and lightning.


he had been prompted by both his Harvard mentor and another Harvard professor. Granted, Kline legitimately

believed in zombies, so it is possible that when presented the opportunity by Schultes, he contacted Davis in an

effort to live and research vicariously through him. However, we will never know because Nathan Kline has long

since passed, his work had yet to be finished. What we do know is that Wade Davis successfully found an empirical,

rational cause for the documented and “verified” accounts of zombi corpus like Claivious Narcisse, which is

something no one else had done.

After Davis published his findings, critiques came almost immediately. The most common attacked his character and

methods. But there are others who claim that his findings are false because the problem of the zombie is not the evil

magic of the bokor or his poison, but rather the cause of such claims and documentation lies in the psyche of the

“victim.” Hans-W. Ackermann and Jeanine Gauthier argue that not only is the idea of a zombie poison false, claims

of zombie powder can be viewed as “sympathetic magic” because their efficacy has yet to be proven. Persons who

have either seen or been described as zombies are easily explained through various types of mental illness.

Ironically, many of their claims cleverly manipulate the very words of Davis in Passage of Darkness and use them

to their own ends to refute his findings. Some of the more common points of contention pointed out by Ackerman

and Gauthier are: Davis’s thesis is problematic in several respects: (1) many characteristics of the flesh-and-blood

zombi can be explained by mental disorders, notably amnesia and catatonic schizophrenia; (2) one of his eight

zombi powders did not contain any puffer fish; (3) only two zombi powders contained small, apparently innocuous,

amounts of tetrodotoxin; (4) it is not clear which samples were studied in which laboratories and what the exact

results were; (5) most samples contained human remains and a confusing variety of ingredients of weak or uncertain

effect.26 Likewise, Erika Bourguignon offers a somewhat similar critique in the form of a back-handed compliment:

This concept seems to provide an explanatory category for certain types of psychoses, and might explain

the much publicized case cited and photographed by Zora Neal Hurston. Members of the educated elite and

foreigners who believe in zombis, favor an hypothesis which argues that some sorcerers have African

recipes of poisons which cause the appearance of death for a certain amount of time. The victim is then

partially revived by the sorcerer, commonly after burial, and remains stunned and incapable of self-

direction, so as to be at the mercy of the sorcerer. This hypothesis suffers from a lack of evidence, and

furthermore does not fit the large variety of zombis who are invisible or transformed into animals. The

hypothesis, however, does have the merit of rationalization; it makes it possible to hold on to a magical

belief yet give it the appearance of scientific respectability.27

After remarks such as these and attacks from William Booth and his cohorts, Davis had a lot of explaining to do. Do

zombies exist in Haiti? I think so. Does it matter whether or not they’re spiritual, physical, or imagined? Maybe. But

in truth, does it really matter? Or is our interest merely another attempt to explain the unexplainable and try to make

the rest of the world understand before all traces of the culture have gone? Africans and Haitians alike have believed

in spirits and zombies, in one form or another, for centuries. It’s improbable that any amount of scientific research

26 Hans-W. Ackermann and Jeanine Gauthier. “The Ways and Nature of the Zombi,” Journal of American Folklore 104, no. 414, (1991): 466-94. 27 Erika Bourguignon, “The Persistence of Folk Belief,” Journal of American Folklore 72, no. 283, (1959): 36-46.


we do to try to prove or disprove the existence of said beings will make any difference. The belief is deep-rooted, a

part of their souls, and a part of their history and ancestors. They will probably continue to believe long after we lose

interest.

Conclusion

Over the course of this essay, I have attempted to show how Haitian Vodou came into being and offer a

brief overview of some of Vodou’s largest concepts and beliefs. As I’ve already mentioned, the concept of Vodou is

far too vast to condense into a few pages, but I have done my best. Vodou does not consist of “black magic,” rather

it is the good, healing magic of spirits and nature, but it makes no mistake in recognizing the bad and the evil. It

believes there should be a balance. I have argued that Vodou is a religious belief system and a unique cultural

existence for Vodounists of Haiti. While I may never be able to explain the thought processes or the beliefs of

Vodou in a single work, I have attempted to explain and expand on its complexness, and I have offered examples

which I feel are worthy. I have also argued the significance of Wade Davis’ Passage of Darkness and for his

contribution to field of study pertaining to the Haitian zombie. In essence, Vodou has shaped the identity of an

island nation.

Vodou is both religion and magic, ritual and science, a blend of the divine and the empirical; likewise, its

belief system constitutes aspects of the beautiful and the terrifying. Viewed in these terms, no matter how much we

try to make sense of the belief, it is unlikely that as outsiders we will ever truly understand because we can only

attempt to glean the experience and history of such a blend of background and complexity. It has mystified and

terrified us, bewildered and sought us, drawn us in and excluded us, and in return, we, the Western world, have

vilified it and sought to destroy it. Only in recent years has the zeal for knowledge and understanding been revived,

but now, our repayment is to watch it dwindle into obscurity. Aside from the knowledge Davis and other prominent

figures of the past have supplied us with, is there nothing else we can learn from our Vodoun neighbors? But as with

what our forefathers have deemed “primitive” and “savage” we may not ever have the chance, for I fear in the near

future, as with many of Haiti’s African ancestors, their belief system and all the knowledge locked within it will

soon fade into obscurity leaving behind only folktales and myths of the sustenance of a people which flourished in

the mountains of our own backyard for centuries. As Vodou slowly fades into the Haitian background, will not only

the zombie as well, becoming nothing more than a piece of Haitian folkloric myth or another chapter in the ever-

changing saga of popular culture as it has in the U.S.?


Bibliography

Ackerman, Hans_W, and Jeanine Gauthier. “The Ways and Nature of the Zombi.” Journal of American Folklore

104.414 (1991): 466-94. JSTOR. Web. 1 May 2015.

Booth, William. “Voodoo Science.” Science, New Series 240, no. 4850 (April 15, 1988): 274-77. JSTOR.

Bourguignon, Erika. “The Persistence of Folk Belief,” Journal of American Folklore 72, no. 283 (Jan. 1959): 36-46.

Davis, Wade. Passage of Darkness. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

Ferère, Gérard, “Haitian Voodoo: It’s True Face,” Caribbean Quarterly 24, no. ¾, Religion & Spirits (Sept. 1978):

36-46.

Geertz, Clifford. “Religion as a Cultural System,” A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion (Oxford: Blackwell

Publishers, 2002 [1966]), 61-81.

Hurston, Zora N. Tell My Horse. Berkeley, CA: Loppencott & Cromwell Publishers, 1938.

Métraux, Alfred. “The Concept of Soul in Haitian Vodu.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 2 no.1 (March,

1946): 84-92. JSTOR.

Murrell, Nathaniel S. Afro-Caribbean Religions. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.

Smith, Jonathan Z. MAP IS NOT TERRITORY: Studies in the Histories of Religions (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1972): 265-88.

Tambiah, Stanley J. Magic, science, religion, and the scope of rationality (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

1990): 111-139.


For Further Reading …

F.J.T. Huxley, “The Ritual of Voodoo and the Symbolism of the Body,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal

Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences,Vol. 251, No. 772, A Discussion on Ritualization of

Behaviour in Animals and Man (Dec. 29, 1966), pp. 423-427.

George Eaton Simpson, “Haitian Magic,” Social Forces,Vol. 19, No. 1 (Oct., 1940), pp. 95-100.

“The Belief System in Haitian Vodun,” American Anthropologist,New Series, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar.,

1945), pp. 35-59.

“Traditional Tales From Haiti,” The Journal of American Folklore,Vol. 56, No. 222 (Oct. - Dec., 1943), pp.

255-265.

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