“The living dead,” or zombie cadavre; people supposedly raised from the dead by Voodoo (vodun) houngans (priests) or bokors (evil sorcerers) and used as slaves. Thanks to horror novels and movies, zombies have become a part of Western folklore. They originated, however, in Haitian Voodoo belief and are not a part of Voodoo belief in other parts of the world where Voodoo and Voodoolike religions are practiced.
Haitians have long lived with the fear that evil sorcerers could capture the bodies of their dead, expel their souls, and make them into slaves for as long as the bokor wanted them. Zombies are thought to have no mind or will of their own and to be entirely subject to the commands of their owner. Several well-documented 20th-century cases exist of people who claim to have survived zombification. One is that of Clairvius Narcisse, who died in 1962 in a hospital. His family buried him. Eighteen years later, Narcisse walked up to his sister on the street and announced that he was back. He told her that his slave master had been killed and he had escaped, gradually regaining much of his memory and his physical functioning. Narcisse was thoroughly tested and investigated, and no one could find holes in his story.