Zombies in Haitian Voodoo

Many of us are used to zombies as unfortunate human beings that have succumbed to a debilitating disease, which either came out of nowhere or was the accidental result of pharmaceutical research into AIDS or cancer. Many of us have forgotten the zombies of our younger days, when they came out of the graves to eat our brains, causing death rather than infection. Unfortunately, true zombies are sorry beings. Created by Haitian Voodoo witch-doctors, zombies were their mindless servants, kept in indefinite submission using herbs and other natural substances. For centuries, the only information of these zombies that the world outside of Haiti received were legends and speculation as to the cause of an individual’s mysterious disappearance. Now zombie making was not widespread even in Haiti, and it was only the worst Voodoo priests that would make one, usually as punishment for a great wrongdoing. It wasn’t until Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist and researcher, studied Haitian Voodoo in the 1980s and uncovered the secret of the zombie makers. He was able to interview a former zombie, Clairvius Narcisse , who had been presumed dead and had been buried. The priest disinterred Clairvius and kept him as a zombie with a mysterious diet. Davis was able to track down another zombie maker and secure a sample of the mysterious substance that created the zombies. His research into Voodoo and zombies is presented in his book The Serpent and the Rainbow.