On April 30, 1962, a Haitian staggered into the hall of the Albert-Schweitzer hospital in Deschapelles, about fifty kilometers north of Port-au-Prince (Haiti). His condition is critical: feverish, he is delirious and spits up blood. Three days later, doctors having been unable to establish a reliable diagnosis, Clairvius Narcisse was declared dead at the age of 43.
At least that’s what his family thinks. Until the same Clairvius Narcissus burst into his hometown eighteen years later, in 1980. Imposture? Prank? Presumably, no: the Haitian admits to having been buried in 1962. He even claims to remember the sound of shovels of earth hitting his grave. The scar on his right cheek, he adds, would have been traced by a nail driven into his coffin. The man claims he was conscious at her funeral, but in a lethargic state, unable to report to his family the terrible drama that was unfolding.
What happened? According to Clairvius Narcissus, a few hours after his burial, he was dug up by a bokor – a sorcerer from voodoo folklore – who allegedly fed him a pasty substance, then forced him to work in the fields for several months. The same man would have previously poisoned him, creating the symptoms of apparent death noted by doctors. After the disappearance of his captor, the spirit of Clairvius Narcissus gradually freeing itself from the sorcerer’s influence (and his body evacuating the poison he regularly made him ingest), the captive apparently fled…
Zombification, instructions for use
Worthy of a Hollywood scenario, the case of Clairvius Narcisse is too well documented to have gone unnoticed in the scientific press. In 1982, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist, traveled to Haiti to conduct the investigation. By examining the local flora in search of ingredients that could have participated in the preparation of “zombie powder”, Wade Davis ended up incriminating two particularly harmful substances: datura, a hallucinogenic plant common in tropical latitudes, and tetrodotoxin, present in the body of certain fish (such as the fugu or pufferfish).
To these botanical explanations are added some anthropological considerations. In the 17th centurye century, the island country was a French colony – called Saint-Domingue – which prospered through the sugar cane trade. Nearly 400,000 slaves from Africa worked on the plantations. When their religion confronted the Christianity imposed by the occupier, a new cult emerged: voodoo.
Even if slaves of African origin eventually freed themselves from the colonial yoke from 1791, Vodou has maintained its hold in Haitian society to this day.
Its followers firmly believe that an individual guilty of evil deeds will be deprived of a soul and enslaved for eternity. In Haitian Creole, we call this bewitched being “zombi”. “The zombie represents the ideal of the individual who is the slave of others. He places himself in the service of the one who ordered the act of zombification.specifies Philippe Charlier, forensic doctor, archaeo-anthropologist and author of a study on the living dead of Haiti (Zombies – Undead Investigationpublished in 2015).
Even if slaves of African origin eventually freed themselves from the colonial yoke from 1791, Vodou has maintained its hold in Haitian society to this day. The trauma of slavery remains very present and fuels the phenomenon, since in this vegetative state on the border between life and death, the victim finds the condition of a slave, carrying out the slightest wishes of their captor. “The zombie will be put in a sugar cane field to work, or will serve as a protector of a house (to monitor the walls or the inhabitants) because it is scary”observes Philippe Charlier.
Concretely, what does a zombification ceremony look like? According to witnesses, after making the victim ingest a substance which transforms him into a cataleptic puppet, he is ritually buried in a coffin. When she comes out a few hours later, she is “resurrected” using a mixture of cane syrup, sweet potato and “zombie cucumber”, a hallucinogenic plant. Thus begins the second “life” of the zombie, which receives a new baptismal name and is assigned to the lowest tasks: household chores, work in the fields, etc.
Zombies in court
If zombification sometimes responds to the simple need to have a servile workforce, it can also serve as a parallel justice to satisfy personal vengeance. The bewitchment of Clairvius Narcissus, for example, would have been motivated by a banal disagreement over inheritance…
Proof of the scale of the phenomenon, article 246 of the Haitian penal code equates the practice to murder. “An attack on the life of a person, by poisoning, is also defined as the use made against him of substances which, without causing death, will have produced a more or less prolonged lethargic state. (…) If, following this lethargic state, the person was buried, the attack will be classified as assassination.” What would you think if our civil code mentioned the rights and duties of extraterrestrials?
Several decades after Wade Davis’s high-profile investigation, psychology experts have taken up the torch, arguing that toxic substances alone are not enough to take control of a person. According to them, it is the belief deeply rooted in voodoo rites which maintains the phenomenon and contributes to creating “living dead” in Haiti. Others argue that mental disorders, notably schizophrenia, could lead to the development of similar behavior.
Regardless, the Haitian zombie ended up being usurped by his Hollywood counterpart. After the occupation of the Caribbean country by the United States from 1915 to 1934, the striking icons of voodoo folklore were exported abroad. In 1932, the film White Zombie (The Walking Dead in French) panics the cinemas, relying on an extract from the Haitian penal code to ensure its publicity… Throughout its interpretations, the creature moves away from its origins to embody the great tensions of the time, such as the communist peril or the struggle of African-Americans for civil rights.
But in Haiti, the phenomenon remains very real and it regularly feeds the news section and the courts. Out of a population of more than 12 million, it is estimated that around 50,000 zombies are currently roaming the country. Tourists take note: If you experience nausea, a slowed heart rate, or a general feeling of numbness after consuming a local beverage, be wary. You might wake up in a coffin.
