Zombies in Haiti

Haiti - Zombie

70 min 00 sec [10 March 2005]

In the West, zombies may be considered the stuff of Hollywood B films but in Haiti they’re part of everyday life. Zombies are taken so seriously here that turning someone into one carries the same penalty as murder. But, as this documentary shows, outlawing the practice is doing little to stop it. We look at how Haiti’s troubled political climate is encouraging child sacrifice and murder.

“He is fresh, this young dead one,” states a voodoo priest, gesturing at the decomposing skull of a baby. “They killed it and sold it to me.” The room fills with choking smoke as he throws the child’s bones into a fire and crushes them into a dark powder. One by one, other ingredients are added and prayers chanted to make zombie powder.

The powder will be used to kill or enslave his enemies or those of his clients. Research by the Harvard Ethnobotanist Wade Davis found that the powder contains a series of toxic and psychotropic ingredients, including an extract from the puffer fish which cause complete paralysis. The victim will become dizzy; their limbs will cease up and heartbeat slow to a virtual stop. To all appearances, they will be dead. Then – still completely aware of what is happening to them – they will be buried alive.

But before the zombie powder can kill them completely, the priest will break into their grave and administer the antidote. “If you let the powder kill him, the zombie will be lost,” explains the priest, Marcel. But when the victims rise from the grave, they are no longer the same person. “The drug used has side effects on the brain,” states psychology professor Chavannes Douyon. “This is a schizophrenic person, a subdued person who has lost their conscience. Zombies are people suffering from a psychological disorder.”

Turning someone into a zombie is illegal in Haiti. But Marcel offers to show us one, for a fee. The zombie stumbles into the room in complete darkness. He can barely walk and his eyes are red and vacant. A thick rope is tied around his waist. “His spirit is in the hands of the one who killed him,” explains Marcel. “His master can make it work, make it go and pick coffee beans.”

Only a few people in Haiti know the zombie procedure. But, as priest Andre Elien explains, “If you hate someone and want revenge, you pay a magician to turn them into a zombie.” Haitians have a long tradition of turning to voodoo to solve their problems. During their struggle for independence, it united the slaves against their Christian masters, helping them drive out the colonists. It is the faith of the poor and one of the country’s official religions.

But today, slavery continues in Haiti under a different form. The deposition of President Aristide did little to restore stability to the country. Life is cheap and 82% population live in dire poverty. “Hunger is killing us, we are in a terrible condition,” laments one woman.

At the height of Artistide’s dictatorship, people believe that he had appointed zombies to the secret services to blindly execute his commands. Today, Aristide may be gone, but power in Haiti still resides with those who can control the zombies.

Small Planet
http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=18340

Transcript of the Film

Exandas - Zombie

Narration

Death is a close companion in Haiti.

Funerals are accompanied with songs, dancing and music. Of those who attend, many wear white.

The dead are buried inside family graves, many of whom look like small homes.

They have iron doors and locks to keep prospective burglars away.

The dead are buried inside family graves, many of whom look like small homes.

They have iron doors and locks to keep prospective burglars away.

But there is nothing to steal here, apart from the dead themselves.

Body-snatching is not unusual in Haiti. Human bones are held to carry magical properties. This belief is strongest among the Houngan, the voodoo priests.

What relatives fear the most is that a magician will attempt to bring their loved one back to life, turning them into…a zombie.

The word ‘zombie’ originates in the Congo. Its roots lie in the name of the goddess Nzabi, which means ‘the spirit of the dead.’

In Haitian tradition, zombies are undead people lacking a soul and conscience. They are mindless beings, used like robots, slaves to a magician who has trapped them within their own bodies using an ancient and secret procedure. Zombie tales are common among Haitians, including our driver Maxim, an educated man with an economics degree.

Maxim (driver)

Do you believe in zombies?

Yes, I believe they exist, but I have never seen one. These matters are shrouded in secrecy, you don’t get access to them just like that.

Narration

We visited one of the best-known voodoo priests in the country. Mr Andre Elien??? has studied Haiti’s traditions in depth.

Andre Elien (voodoo priest)

There’s a type of voodoo that takes the form of a dancing ceremony, but there’s also scientific voodoo. What is scientific voodoo? The science of resurrection. The zombie procedure is a science which Haiti has kept a closely-guarded secret. It does not get out easily.

Narration

But as Mr Elien said, this science has been corrupted and is now only used for evil purposes. If you hate someone and want revenge, you pay a magician to turn them into a zombie. It is the harshest sentence possible, the cruelest means of revenge.

Andre Elien (voodoo priest)

It’s only human. In Haiti we tell educated people ‘if you try to take my land, or anything else of mine, I will take you to ‘mountain court’. ‘Mountain court’ means asking voodoo experts to take care of things.

I always speak harshly to these magicians. I tell them ‘how can you use science to enslave people when we speak of independence, and consider ourselves free people?’ They re-animate the dead body, but the problem is that they don’t restore the soul. The result is a half-person.

Narration

Hollywood loved the idea, producing numerous films on the topic of the living dead emerging from their graves. But could zombies actually exist? The question may appear ridiculous at first, but Haiti’s penal code takes the issue quite seriously. Article 249 states that turning people into zombies constitutes pre-meditated murder.

Narration

Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, is a lively and colourful city of two million inhabitants.

Its streets are decorated with murals, and the vibrantly-coloured tap-taps, the local buses, blare out religious messages over the din of traffic.

The surrounding mountains are dotted with the villas of the wealthy. A sea of tin shacks stretches at their feet.

The streets are piled with garbage, which the locals burn for fear of disease.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Out of a population of 8 million, 6.5 million – 82 percent – live in poverty.

The only appealing aspect of this squalid shantytown is its name – Bel Air. Journalists rarely enter here, particularly if they are white.

Bel Air resident

The only hope in my mind is Jesus. My hope is in Jesus, in Him who is up there. When I wake up in the morning I always say ‘My good Lord, I am up and I am in your hands, to go out and find money to buy food for my child.’

Narration

The locals’ main preoccupation is how to obtain a single meal per day. Unemployment here stands at 66 percent.

Bel Air resident

Hunger is killing us, we are in a terrible condition. I don’t have to lie to you, you can see it for yourself.

Narration

The husks of destroyed cars are strewn about. Nowadays, they are mainly used in barricades.

Real battles took place here in February 2004. The number of people who died in them is still unknown. The fighting had yet to cease. The residents of Bel Air were prepared to defend President Aristide with their lives. His image is everywhere, as are slogans in his favour.

Slogan

Long live Aristide

Narration

The destitute consider Aristide their father and protector. He is their man, even though he appears to have done little during his 13-year rule to improve their living conditions.

Bel Air resident

Aristide is the man who embraced the masses. The common people believe in Aristide.

Bel Air resident

Without Aristide there is no country. Without Aristide there is no peace. Without Aristide all the children go hungry, they have nowhere to sleep and they get dirty water to drink.

Narration

Aristide was the one who legalized voodoo, the religion of the poor, after years of prohibition. Along with Christianity, voodoo is now the country’s official religion.

Voodoo is instantly associated with black magic and the servants of Satan. But reality here is different.

This is a voodoo ceremony in a Haitian village

The word ‘voodoo’ means God or Spirit, the Supreme Being. Around it are dozens of lesser divinities, each with its own earthly characteristics, similar to the Pantheon of ancient Greek mythology. The priest initiates the ceremony with a holy rattle, calling upon the spirit of Legba, which has power over crossroads, to open the gate between the earthly and spirit worlds.

The village inhabitants dance and sing inside the temple. The gods expect of them to eat, smoke and drink cheap rum. The temple’s central element is a wooden bar stretching from the floor to the ceiling, symbolizing a union between the earth and the sky. Offerings to the gods are placed around it. As time goes by, the intensity rises. The sound of the instruments becomes louder. More powerful spirits are summoned, and a fire is lit to denote their presence – Baron and his wife Brigitte, the lords of the dead and keepers of Hades. Baron’s symbol is a grinning skeleton. He curses and drinks, and is dressed in a suit and top hat.

Every divinity is subsequently called upon in turn. Each has its own chant, and its own drum beat. Erzulie Dantor, goddess of love, is usually associated with a black Madonna. Christian icons are frequently used in association with voodoo gods.

Aristide’s legalization of voodoo did not impress the students. Among them, he is reviled as a demagogue.

Jean (student)

Do you know what he said before he left? He had gone to inaugurate the square of Cite Soleil. “Whenever you are hungry, you will come and sit at this square,” he said.

Narration

Aristide, a Catholic priest, was first elected in 1990 as the defender of the poor and the weak. A few months later, he was toppled in a power coup.

Joshua (student)

This creates the mistaken impression among the international community that Aristide was a leader of the Left. That’s not true! Aristide had nothing to do with left-wing or socialist politics.

Narration

In 1994, Aristide is restored to power in Haiti with the support of 20,000 United States troops. In turn, the president sells off all state-owned companies and bows completely to the wishes of the International Monetary Fund, plunging his people deeper into poverty.

Joshua (student)

From each poor neighbourhood, Aristide would pick 15-20 people and arm them. They were to terrorise the rest of the residents into keeping quiet.

Narration

Aristide’s paramilitary squads were called “Chimaeras”. They were gangs of starving thugs, recruited for a pittance.

Joel Zamor (Aristide party member)

Never, never, never, not for a moment did President Aristide give us weapons. President Aristide’s weapon is his word.

Narration

Aristide is re-elected in 2000. He is no longer a poor priest, but a powerful and rich politician. The Bush government no longer needs him, and traps him by blocking the 500 million dollars of aid which Haiti was scheduled to receive. Starvation strikes harder than ever before, while at the same time the Chimaera squads attack all those who criticize Aristide.

Jean (student)

The university criticized the running of the state, which was a mistake. Aristide sent the paramilitaries, the Chimaeras, along with a great number of police to attack the university. More than 13 people were wounded by gunfire, and another 70 people suffered other kinds of injuries. But the greatest tragedy, which nobody could stand for, is that Aristide sent people to break the dean’s legs.

Narration

By this stage, President Aristide had left. He had to flee the country when rebels setting out from Gonaives in the north marched on the capital and surrounded it. Serious bloodshed was imminent.

Narration

Amidst the chaos, foreign troops from the United States and France seized the opportunity to intervene. Under unclear circumstances, 50 US Marines snatched Aristide out of the presidential mansion at 4am. Both he and his supporters allege he was kidnapped.

Joel Zamor (Aristide party member)

On Friday, the president went to his home. We were applauding him, as he had just won the election. And on Saturday, during the night, we heard that he had left. Left to go where?

Narration

After decades of ruthless dictatorship, Aristide was Haiti’s first democratically-elected president. The dictatorship was so harsh that the people believed that zombies had been appointed to the secret services, blindly executing every command they received.

Cho Anne (Aristide party member)

President Aristide was elected with a 67 percent majority. Almost the entire population of Haiti voted for him. But the great powers don’t like seeing a president with popular backing, because it means that they cannot have control.

Narration

American Marines guard the presidential palace now.

People gather to gawk at the newly-arrived whites.

Man outside presidential mansion

-There are American soldiers inside!
-So, what do you want to tell them?
-I just want to speak to them.

American soldier

There’s a lot of violence, a lot of killings. There are a lot of gangs around here. There was a lot of looting going on, but we stopped nearly all of it.

Narration

In either case, the rebels had won. They’re still tearing police stations apart.

Stand-up

It may sound incredible, but this destruction was caused by human hands, not by a bomb. Hundreds of city residents come here on a daily basis, looting whatever they can find to take home or sell in the street market.

Narration

Mrs Silvera is descended from one of Haiti’s oldest families. She breathed a sigh of relief when President Aristide left.

Elisabeth Silvera

Instead of trying to reverse the trend of poverty and misery in Haiti, Aristide sought to make the rich feel like the poor. That was his ideology. “The rocks that are underwater will understand how hard it is to be a rock under the sun,” he said.

Narration

Guy Philippe, leader of the rebels, is staying at her hotel. He gambles at the casino and drinks expensive champagne. At 33, this US-trained former policeman has power within his grasp.

Guy Philippe (rebel leader)

-Are you supported by the US?
- We are only supported by the people of Haiti. And that’s what counts.

Narration

To topple Aristide, Guy Philippe had no qualms about accepting help from former dictatorship officials who are wanted across the world for crimes committed during that period. He doesn’t deny the charge.

Guy Philippe (rebel leader)

Yes, perhaps. But these people have now returned to give their life for their country. Why should we not forgive them? Christ even forgave the men who killed him. Why should we not forgive them? After all, it is up to the courts to decide.

Narration

Philippe’s troops are scouring Bel Air for the armed Chimaera gangs, believed to be hiding there.

Bel Air resident

There was a blackout, it was dark, they were in position, throwing flares to light up the place. And then they started shooting.

Narration

Many people were injured, small children mostly. Among them, this boy who lived here with his siblings.

Dead boy’s brother

We ran through the bullets to recover Poupous’ body, so that they wouldn’t throw it away. When somebody dies, they throw the body away. They said we are from the Chimaeras, that we carry guns, a lot of accusations. You can see this is all we have in the house, such as this old bed.

Dead boy’s sister

-Did your brother carry a gun?
-He was a small child. I’m older than he was.

Narration

Helicopters now patrol the skies over Bel Air. The residents feel their country is under occupation.

Bel Air resident

We know all this very well, because we are no longer slaves and we don’t have chains on our feet. They want to put us on a boat and take us wherever they want. We say no, seven times no!

Narration

Haiti is an African country in the Caribbean.

It was created with slaves, brought by Spanish colonialists from West Africa when the native Taino Indians began to die out. On board the galleys, the slaves carried with them a culture and traditions which the Christian colonialists demonized with the cross and the sword. Voodoo buried itself in the plantations and hid in the mountains. But it ended up uniting the slaves one night in 1791, when at one of these ceremonies they decided to rise up against the French, who had gained control of the colony. In the following days, the sugarcane plantations were set ablaze. The slaves were burning their chains. That historic voodoo ceremony was named ‘fiery night’, and sparked a 13-year struggle that would eventually lead to independence. In 1804, Haiti became the first independent black democracy in the world.

It was also the first country to recognize Greece’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.

This year, Haiti celebrates its 200th anniversary of independence from white dominion.

Narration

Buki’s temple was in the middle of the village, in a rural area far from the capital. Buki was waiting for us. His trusted associates had told him about us. They said that he knew how to make the zombie powder. He is a very experienced Houngan, and was displeased when we started asking about the details of his craft. He asked us to follow him into one of the two rooms of his temple.

Conversation with magician

-What is this?
-Something that will protect you.
-Smell it…

Narration

The liquid gives off a strong eucalyptus scent.

Marcel, the magician’s assistant, was already there. He is the ‘malfaiteur’, the man who does the dirty business. He is making libations with rum at the temple shrine.

A small coffin lies at his feet.

Inside are some bones, and a small decomposing human skull…

Conversation with wizard

-It is proof that he isn’t joking with you.
-This is a small coffin…
-Yes.
-Is it a baby? Is it a baby?
-It’s the best kind…
-Where did he get it?
-Only he can find them.
-How did it die?
-It was 1.5 years old…and they killed it…they sold it to me. They gave the child some powder, and it fell sick and died.

-He knew that the child had died in the desired way, and so he knew where to find its coffin?

-Who killed it?

-Who killed it? It was an associate of mine, who obtains them for me when I need them.

-So the child died of the powder, right?

-Yes.

-Did the parents know this?

-No

-The only knew that it was ill?

-Yes. That is my business, not yours.

Narration

We were appalled at the thought that this child had been murdered months previously, so that the magician could have the necessary spell components to work with. It was poisoned using the same powder, zombie powder, and its bones were simply the ingredients Buki used to make more.

Conversation with magician

-I have a secret method of doing these things. Once you’re part of Lucifer, you stay that way forever.
-Do you belong to Lucifer?
-Yes. Lucifer will devour me as well.

Narration

We were to follow him as he went out to obtain some missing ingredients. The day promised to be an interesting one.

Conversation with magician

-Do you consider Lucifer to be good or evil?
-He was God’s first child, but he rebelled. God was not angry, but He drove him away. But he has good qualities. In this neighbourhood, everybody respects me. I don’t fool myself about what I do. I do it to eat and drink. But as you can see, I’m not afraid to die.

Narration

We reached a neighbouring community. Buki soon found the village’s Houngan.

Conversation with magician

-This is another magician. He carries the rank of emperor.
-Is he a friend of yours?
-Yes, a good friend of mine. A good friend.

Narration

Buki asked his friend to provide a missing ingredient.

Conversation with magician

-What is that?
-Powder…It is too much for you, knowing all this.

Narration

Saints’ icons hang upside down from the walls, covered in spells and symbols. The Houngan can be commissioned to banish disease, charm a husband or harm an enemy.

We headed towards Tissous, a village close to the riverbanks. On top of their problems, the local inhabitants also had drought to deal with. Most Haitians are farmers, but as they lack all modern infrastructure, the soil can only give them the bare minimum.

Electricity is a luxury here, as are paved roads and drinking water.

Song

Beloved Haiti
Your children are dying
Your children are naked
Who will mourn them?

Local inhabitant

We cannot live. It doesn’t rain at all, hunger is killing us. The children do not go to school, they have nothing to eat and they cry. We have nothing to give them.

Local inhabitant

We would like some water to live. And jobs.

Conversation with local inhabitants

-We are hungry. Give us something to eat. You cannot take pictures and give me nothing in return…
-Without God, we would not be able to live. Only God can help us.
-Hope? Will you take me to the land of the whites?

Song

Corrupt Haiti
Haiti of zombies
Pray for me and collect your blood
For the great Kobi

Narration

Buki was to ask his Houngan friend for some more ingredients necessary for the zombie powder he was to make. In contrast to the previous temple, this one is decorated with images of Jesus and of demon-slaying angels.

Magician

Come. You shouldn’t be afraid.

Narration

Buki departed with two of the dozens of powders kept by his associate at the back of the temple. He headed back to his village. As soon as the sun began to set, the ceremony would begin.

The accident had just taken place. Burdened as usual with more people than it could carry, the bus had careened off the road.

Injured woman

Only you can save me, my God. No man can save us, my God. Only you can save me. You saved me, my Jesus.

Narration

Most of the passengers dealt stoically with the incident, bowing to their fate, as if what had happened to them had been expected or commonplace. Those who were unhurt were unloading the luggage and the injured off the bus. Others simply continued their journey by climbing on passing trucks.

Injured passengers

-Can you get up? Is he dead?
-Can you get up?
-Where are you headed?
- L’ Estere.

Narration

The seriously injured passengers were doomed. Ambulances are nearly non-existent in Haiti. And the few motorists who had the luxury of a private car weren’t about to stop to pick them up.

Maxim (driver)

There’s only one Red Cross ambulance working right now. One ambulance is not enough for the Red Cross to provide a service. Politicians, on the other hand, each have five cars that cost 70,000 dollars each.

Narration

In the absence of a state health system, all hospitals are privately-owned. Medicine and treatment costs a lot of money, which these people have spent a long time collecting.

Residents

-When your child falls ill, and you don’t have money to buy medicine what do you do?
-Give it a bit of tea, and leave it to die.
-There are child illnesses that only a doctor can cure. But what’s the point of even going to a doctor when you don’t have the means to do so?

Narration

To be weak in this country is to die.

Narration

Marcel was to make the powder. When we entered, he had already begun to draw pagan symbols on the ground, around a great wooden mortar at the centre of the room. Wearing a ceremonial kerchief on his head, Marcel rubs his hands and face with the eucalyptus-scented liquid.

He than puts in his mouth a powder that will protect him from the poison he is about to make.

He throws the child’s bones into the mortar, using the pestle to make the sign of the cross over them.

The first powder which Buki obtained from the other Houngan is mixed with the ground bones. Marcel makes libations with rum. Whatever is left is carefully stored away.

Marcel

He is fresh, this young dead one.

Narration

He throws the bones into the fire, to make them easier to grind. The room is filled with a choking smell similar to that of a crematorium.

The mixture is sifted, leaving a dark powder. Marcel collects it before he continues.

Marcel

We know there is a God, but we work for Lucifer, which means hell. We know heaven is not for us.

Narration

One by one, the remaining ingredients are added to the mortar. Most of them as plant-based powders.

Marcel

This one we drink. You can drink it. You can make it and drink it. If someone has harmed you, you can do this, it is like an antidote for the spell that has been placed on you. I put it in my mouth to show you that it’s not poison, it’s an antidote.

Narration

After a three-hour process, the powder is ready. It is carefully collected in small jars.

Marcel

Now that we’re done, it’s time to have some clairet (local rum). It will help you get, you know, stronger.

Narration

According to a series of analyses run during the eighties by Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis, the powder was found to contain a series of toxic and psychotropic ingredients. In addition to human bone, the recipe usually contains cane toad glands, leaves of the hallucinogenic datura plant, and parts of the puffer fish, a native of Haitian waters. The innards of this fish contain a very powerful poison, called tetrodotoxin, which causes paralysis and death.

Tetrodotoxin poisoning is commonplace in Japan as the puffer fish, also known as Fugu, is a popular starter in Japanese cuisine. Only chefs with special state permits who know how to remove the poison are allowed to prepare this dish. But there are still cases of people taken to hospital, completely paralysed yet still fully conscious. They are aware of their surroundings but are incapable of reacting.

Marcel

-Do you feel bad about making a poison that kills people?
-With all due respect, if someone does something wrong, the people in my line of business take action. But we would never poison that person.

Narration

Buki and other priests spent a long time chanting, praying, and calling upon the spirits to empower the poisonous powder they had just made. When the prayers were over, Buki began explaining how the powder is used…

Magician

What you see here is poison. You can have it around for whatever you need. Someone may be a problem in your work. If you want to kill someone using this powder, you can blow it like this. Or you can cast it on the floor.

Narration

The powder is toxic and can be absorbed even through the skin. The victim becomes dizzy and has difficulty breathing. The limbs cease functioning, and the heartbeat becomes so slow that it is virtually undetectable. The victim is, to all appearances, dead. In reality, this person is in a state of apparent death.

Chavannes Douyon (psychology professor)

The heart still beats, but very slowly. To you, this is a dead person. But not to a magician.

Narration

Because of Haiti’s extreme poverty, post-mortems are rare in this country. The presumed deceased is quickly buried. In reality, they are buried alive. They can hear sounds of their burial and be aware of what is happening, but is powerless to act.

Chavannes Douyon (psychology professor)

This is the reason why these people can’t be made to live again, because they never died. But they definitely look dead.

Narration

After the funeral, the magician must go to his victim’s grave as soon as possible.

Magician

If you let the powder kill him, you cannot go and get him. This zombie will be lost because of you, it will go before God.

Narration

The magician breaks into the grave and awakens the victim using another powder. Only the one who made the poison can make the proper antidote. The antidote’s exact composition is unknown.

Andre Elien (voodoo priest)

It is a great secret. It is the greatest secret in Haiti. Even if I knew it, I wouldn’t speak of it.

Magician

-This is what you use to wake up the dead? This powder?
-Yes.
-If it is you who killed him, will you be able to wake him up?

Narration

But when the victims rise from the grave, they are no longer who they once were.

Chavannes Douyon (psychology professor)

This is a schizophrenic person, a subdued person, one who has lost their conscience. This person does not react, they are completely morose. Zombies are people suffering from psychological disorder.

Narration

Dr Chavannes Douyon is a professor of psychology. He and anthropology professor Ronald Littlewood of the University of London have studied three recorded zombie cases using neurological tests and axial tomography. They published their findings in the Lancet, the respected British medical journal.

Chavannes Douyon (psychology professor)

The drug used sometimes has side-effects on the brain. The person is under shock, and lacked oxygen during their incarceration in the coffin. For this reason, it is very hard to rehabilitate someone in this condition into society.

Narration

The Houngan interpret mental disability through folklore. They believe that a magician steals the soul of his victims.

Magician

When the soul is gone, all logic is gone. You can see the zombie do various things, but you cannot put the soul back inside. You can take it out, but you cannot put it back inside.

Narration

The living dead become slaves to the magician. They are controlled through a mixture of drugs and psychotropic substances, and are sustained via a pulpy mixture that lacks salt.

Chavannes Douyon (psychology professor)

Salt is a key ingredient that activates the nervous system. By not giving a zombie salt, you can control its behaviour.

Narration

Buki says he has never turned someone into a zombie. Doing so would have been illegal.

Magician

If you have the zombie at home, even your wife cannot know. You can be sitting there and not know that I have a zombie in the back room.

Narration

But he offered to show us a zombie, for a fee of course. He would travel far from his village to find one, and rent it from his master. We were to meet again in a few days.

Song

In my beautiful country, Africa
There are lovely flowers that smell nice
And we built a paradise
A place where one can live with a happy heart
If one day a ship comes, bound for abroad
And my people is chained
In that year misery was sown
But misery is no longer here today.

Narration

Half the population of Haiti is illiterate. Children usually drop out of school to make a living. In the best case scenario, their families send them to the homes of friends or relatives in the capital in the hopes that their new guardians will give them an education, and the opportunity to escape a squalid life.

Restavek

I do all the housework at home. I clean, do laundry, cook, all kinds of housework. For me, my aunt and her three children.

Narration

But these children often end up as house-servants, or worse, are sexually abused.

Restavek

-How do they treat you?
-Not so well, but I have to stay here.
-What do they do to you?
-Sometimes, even if I do something good, they curse me. Even though we are family, sometimes they treat me as a stranger.

Narration

These children are called restaveks, and are part of a centuries-old phenomenon in Haiti. Activists in centres such as this one are trying to teach them how to write, read, sing and dance.

Social worker

They sometimes come in hungry, with worn-out shoes. We give them food and clothes. You’ve seen the neighbourhood outside, it’s a shantytown where people live on top of each other. They can talk to you of hunger, but you have not felt it. You can find food, but they are on the brink of despair.

Social worker

I’m not at all optimistic. This system breeds poverty. The people who are poor become even poorer, and the rich minority becomes even richer.

Class game

Stand up! Throw! Sit down! Scream!

Narration

Everything had been arranged under a veil of secrecy. Buki had asked us to come to the temple late at night, in order to avoid any village witnesses. The zombie would be brought to one of the temple’s rooms under cover of darkness, through a back door. We waited in complete darkness for some time before we heard footsteps.

The man is tied at the waist with a thick rope held by Marcel.

He is dressed in white, and his face is covered in white powder. His can barely hold his head up. His eyes are red and vacant. He looks drugged or mentally ill. His facial expression does not change. He does not react to anything. His nails and toenails are clipped. His skin colour is normal.

Conversation with Marcel

-Can he hear us, see us?
-I didn’t kill it. You wanted to see it, and I showed it to you. I didn’t kill it. Don’t be afraid of it, you can touch it. It won’t harm you. Its master told me not to hold it, but to let it go free.
-Why is it covered in white?
-We had to prepare it in the mortuary, to wash it well so that it won’t be dirty.

Magician

-I cannot make it speak. You asked for it, I brought it to you. It can see you, see everything that you do, but it cannot speak to you. Its spirit is in the hands of the one who killed it. If I had killed it, I would know what to do.

-Does it get angry?

-We don’t know, because they sent it to us. We do not know if it gets angry, if it curses. If I had killed him I could bring him back, but I know nothing about him. If I had killed him, his spirit would be in my hands and I could turn him back.

-Is it suffering now?

-No, there is no pain for him now. He can hear you, but cannot speak to you.

-Does his master have complete control?

-Yes. It can make it work, make it go and pick coffee beans.

-If it eats salt now, it will leave. It will wander the streets until someone finds it. It will be lost.

Narration

Marcel took away the zombie, and we exited the temple filled with the doubt caused by rational thinking. Was that an undead being, the slave of a magician, or was it simply a mentally retarded person picked up from the street? Was it someone under the influence of narcosis, or simply a well-staged show put together by a group of penniless people for the price of a few dollars? We would never learn the answer. All that we knew was that outside, that man could walk, albeit clumsily, whereas inside he had to be carried to a chair. What we also knew is that before he came into the room, the man momentarily adjusted his collar.

The tale of Clairvius Narcisse is a well-known one, not only within Haiti but also worldwide. His case was heard around the world during the eighties. But Clairvius Narcisse had been dead since 1962. This hospital certified his death.

Hospital records clerk

On April 30, 1962, we received a patient from L’ Estere. It was his first time here. His name was Narcisse Clairvius, and after his examination he died. He was placed in the morgue. His parents came and buried him.

Narration

Mr Antoine Veillus was the hospital’s morgue attendant at the time, and knew Narcisse well. They were close friends. He recalls that Narcisse’ brother did not want a post-mortem carried out.

Antoine Veillus (morgue attendant)

His brother said ‘no, I don’t want an autopsy carried out on my brother.’ I fetched the doctor, and told him that the brother didn’t want an autopsy held. The doctor said, ‘if that’s the case, I will sign the death certificate.’

Narration

Mr Veillus placed Narcisse in a coffin and nailed the lid shut. In doing so, a nail penetrated the coffin and struck his friend in the face. Veillus then bent over and said:

Antoine Veillus (morgue attendant)

“I’m not the one who killed you. You will seek him out.”

Narration

Narcisse was enterred in this grave. His nephew was present at the funeral.

Narcisse’ nephew

Yes, he was buried here the first time he died.

Narration

Eighteen years later, Narcisse was seen wandering in a nearby village. His sister, who had been shopping in the market, recognised him.

Narcisse’ nephew

It was like a miracle. It caused a great sensation. People would come from faraway places to see, even foreigners came. When he returned, he told us what it was like to be inside the coffin. He could hear what people were saying around him. And he told us about the nail that hit him in the head when the coffin was nailed shut.

Antoine Veillus (morgue attendant)

When he came back, he told me “Antoine Besa, when you hit me I gave a start. If you had opened the coffin you would have realized it.”

Narcisse nephew

-He did not say who did this to him?
-Yes, he did, but I don’t want to comment on it. He said who killed him, and took him along. But now that person is dead.

Antoine Veillus (morgue attendant)

They said it was his brother who killed him. Over a small plot of aubergines.

Narration

Narcisse’ brother was jailed. Narcisse spoke in detail about being a slave to a magician. Along with other people, he was made to work the fields.

Narcisse’ nephew

-How did they make him work?
-The zombie goes wherever his master says, and does whatever he is told to do. If the magician runs, the zombie will run. He will no longer be able to recognize his own family.

Narration

But the magician died, and the slaves escaped. Narcisse regained some of his lost conscience by eating salt. He wandered for a while doing various jobs, until the day he rejoined his family. He even returned for a number of routine tests to the Albert Schweizer hospital that had certified his death.

Hospital records clerk

After many years, in 1980, the patient returned to this hospital. We know that he came here in 1962, we examined him, and then he died. In 1980, he came back and said ‘I am the one who died in 1962, I have been resurrected.’

Narration

Narcisse Clairvius died of natural causes a few years ago.

Narcisse’ nephew

-They buried him here twice?
-Yes, twice. In the same place.

Narration

Sociologists say that the zombie tradition is the remains of centuries of slavery. A slavery which continues under a different form today.

Song

I’m happy, I’m happy you’re here
I’m happy because you’re here, are you happy too?
All of us happy, let us sing. Let us all clap.
I’m happy, happy you’re here with us
I’m happy, happy you’re here with us.

End credits

See more on http://exandas.ert.gr
Contact us on: exandas@ert.gr

Haiti

G. Avgeropoulos (Research – Script – Presentation)
Yiannis Vlachos (Image – Sound)
Anastasia Skoubri (Production Manager)

Athens

Thanassis Papacostas (Director and Music Editor)
Dimitris Nikolopoulos (Editor)
Christos Kostakopoulos (Editor)
Avgi Moure (Editor)
Giorgos Kypriadis (Editor)

Fixing- translation Haiti

Clara Bluntschli
Harry Nicolas
Djaloki

Driver

Maxim

Research – topic planning

Emmy Dimitrakopoulou
Georgia Anagnou

Material and Website Supervisors

Georgia Anagnou
Vassilis Katsardis

Translation into Greek

Jean Robert Kordington

Archivist:

Nikos Sfetsas