myth - Haiti Observer Blog

Zombies, like vampires, are dominating the entertainment media lately. You can view these monsters in movies, TV, and read of their ghoulish exploits in penny-ante novels. But contrary to the popular idea that zombies are evil incarnate, in Haitian lore they are victims of maltreatment at the hands of witch doctors known as bokers. The Haiti government has used the specter of these re-enlivened corpses to instill fear in the Haitian people, particularly during the Duvalier dynasty, which lasted nearly 30 years.

Papa Doc Duvalier formed a death-squad, the Tonton Macoutes, a group of men clad in denim shirts, straw hats, and sunglasses, who carried machetes. They often killed people in broad daylight, or carried them away in the dead of night, never to be seen or heard from again. The unexplained disappearance of a member of the Haitian community gave rise to the idea these victims had been turned into zombies, the living dead. Fed by Tonton Macoutes' threats they would zombie-fy anyone, whom they perceived as a dissident of the Duvalier regime, the legend took hold in Haitian imaginations.

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