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through means of Vodoun or necromancy, destroying the
mental processes of this person through the process. Most
people consider zombies only to be the stuff of horror books
and movies, but they do exist in Haiti in the present day.
Thousands of people in Haiti are considered to be zombies,
some of which lead normal everyday lives with families, jobs
and are respected citizens. It¹s even considered to be a
crime to make a zombie in Haiti.Haitian Penal Code:
Article 249. It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the
employment which may be made against any person of
substances which, without causing actual death, produce a
lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person
had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no
matter what result follows.To make a zombie, a voodoo
practitioner makes a potion that consists of mainly the poison
of the pufferfish (one of the strongest nerve poisons known
to man, the clinical drug norcuron has similar effects and is
used during surgery) that is given to the intended victim. This
causes severe neurological damage, primarily effecting the
left side of the brain (the left side of the brain controls
speech, memory and motor skills). The victim suddenly
becomes lethargic, then slowly seems to die. In reality, the
victim¹s respiration and pulse becomes so slow that it is
nearly impossible to detect. The victim retains full awareness
as he is taken to the hospital, then perhaps to the morgue
and finally as they are buried alive. Then, at the voodoo
practitioner¹s leisure does he come to retrieve the victim,
now become a slave, as a commodity (at one time it was
said that most of the slaves who worked in the sugar cane
plantations of Haiti were zombies. One case in 1918 had a
voodoo priest named Ti Joseph who ran a gang of laborers
for the American Sugar Corporation, who took the money
they received and fed the workers only unsalted porridge). A
zombie will remain in a robotlike state indefinitely, until he
tastes either salt or meat(so much for ³The Night of the
Living Dead²). Then the zombie becomes aware of their
state, immediately returning to the grave. The reality behind
the zombie has only been taken seriously by medical
science within the last ten years, since the use of CAT scans
of the brain, along with the confessions of voodoo priests,
explaining their methods. Previous to that, zombies were
considered mental defective by science or explained as
stunts to try to confuse scientists.
There are many examples of zombies in modern day Haiti.
Papa Doc Duvallier the dictator of Haiti from 1957 to 1971
had a private army that was said to consist of zombies,
called tonton macoutes. These people were said to be in
trances and they followed every command that Duvallier
gave them. Duvallier was also a devout voodooist, as are
many people in Haiti, who lead a voodoo church¹ with many
followers. He also claimed that he was immortal and he
would rule Haiti forever¹, promising to return after his death
to rule again. After his death (a heart attack), he did not
come back, although a guard was placed at his tomb, to
insure that he would not try to escape, or so someone
wouldn¹t try to steal the body (this is a common practice in
Haiti, along with the padlocking of tombs, for the same
reason). There are also many stories of people that die, then
many years later return to the shock and surprise of
relatives. A man named Caesar returned 18 years after he
died to marry, have three children and die again, 30 years
after he was originally buried. Another case involved a
student from a village PortauPrince who had been shot in a
robbery attempt. Six months later, the student returned to his
parent¹s house as a zombie. At first it was possible to talk
with the man, and he related the story of his murder, a
voodoo witch doctor stealing his body from the ambulance
before he reached hospital and his transformation into a
zombie. As time went on, he became unable to
communicate, he grew more and more lethargic and died.
A case reported a writer named Stephen Bonsal described a
zombie he witnessed in 1912 in this way:³A man had at
intervals a high fever he had joined a foreign mission church
and the head of the mission saw the patient die. He assisted
at the funeral and saw the dead man buried. Some days
later the supposedly dead man was found dressed in grave
clothes, tied to a tree, moaning. The poor wretch soon
recovered his voice but not his mind. He was indentifed by
his wife, by the psysicain who ahd prounced him dead, and
by the clergyman. The victim recognized noone, and his
days were spent moaning inarticulate words noone could
understand².