Zombies

Zombies

The original place where zombies come from African lore. Zombies are someone who was under the control of the magical will of the sorcerer. Today it means a dead human with no soul. The word zombie comes from Kongo Zumbi or zombie that means fetish or enslaved spirt. One story told by Jan Knappert in Natal.
A Zulu man called Sipo told how his brother Vamba who became ill and walking like an old man. He shortly died and his body did not go through the normal process of the dead with rigour mortis of the body was soft. Sipo was uneasy by this and thought this was the work of magic. The next day after being buried Vamba grave was opened and the body gone everyone knew that there this was work of the magic. Sipo went searching for a powerful sorcerer in his homeland. Eventually, in hushed tones, one particular person has pointed out to him an influential man with a large farm. Sipo waited at the gate until dusk at this time the people stop working and went home. Sipo saw an army of silent workers shuffling in the fields. The workers were silent during working. Sipo saw his brother and he went to him and saw his grey face and could not talk his tongue was slit. Sipo brought his brother back home and Vamba died again shortly and his body shows the process of the dead body.

The term zombie is known to the world from Haitian vodoun religion. This religion is misunderstood the vodoun priest use nerve poison tetrodotoxin from the puffer fish to produce the effect of death. The douses of poison does not bring death but suppression of sign of death for 48 hours. If the zombie eats salt or see the sea he/she will return to their grave.
The zombie’s film genre started back to the 1930s and 1940s. The movie White Zombie released in 1932. Today there is a large number of zombie films Night of the Living dead to Shaun of the dead. But TV show like the walking dead gives a detailed look into the end of days with zombies the main threat and a comic by Robert Kirkman that started in 2003 and is still ongoing with 141 issues so far. Zombies are also popular in the computer game section with games like Resident Evil series.

John and Caitlin Matthews, The Element Encyclopaedia of Magical Creatures, 2013, Zombies, p 541-43

Go to this youtube video for a history on zombies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGdb0TtfmIM