Voodoo zombies

Origin: Haïtian beliefs and supersitions








In Voodoo, it is believed that a person’s soul is divided into two basic parts: the ti bon ange (little good angel) and the gros bon ange (big good angel). The gros bon ange is responsible for a person’s life force and their bodily functions, while the ti bon ange is responsible for a person’s consciousness and identity.

It is believed that the ti bon ange remains with the body for nine days after death, at which point it is released to face God and account for its sins. Meanwhile, the gros bon ange remains on earth, where it haunts the places where it’s body lived until a proper burial ritual has been performed.





On the island of Haiti, it’s not unheard of for family members to actually see their dead alive, walking in a state of zombification. But no one wants to reclaim them. They are seen as irredeemably unclean and are now outcasts forever. They’re not figures of terror, though. They’re not capable of harming anyone. Instead, they are a creature hovering between life and death – it has no will to kill, or any will at all – and is simply a scary symbol of human bondage.


Real cases




In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of a woman who appeared in a village. A family claimed that she was Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. The woman was examined by a doctor; X-rays indicated that she did not have a leg fracture that Felix-Mentor was known to have had. Hurston pursued rumors that affected persons were given a powerful psychoactive drug, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote:
