The Living Dead

I’m a huge zombie fan; I love the movies and games that include zombies. I’ve read a few Walking Dead novels and I watch the show almost religiously with my roommates. However when I read A Zombie Is a Slave Forever by journalist Amy Wilentz and how the idea of zombies originates from a dark past within African slavery I was truly shocked. Wilentz describes how suicide would render one’s soul unable to make the passage back into Lan Guinee within the Voodoo religion, making the one who committed suicide a lifeless zombie.  When slaves tried to escape enslavement through suicide, by becoming a zombie they would remain half-alive, still separated from Mother Africa. While becoming a zombie there was the possibly of becoming under another’s control no better than a slave. The slaves would become zombies as a result of the Voodoo god of the underworld, Baron Samedi. Who was offended and angered by self-inflicted death. “If for some reason a person has thwarted or offended Baron, the god will not allow that person, upon his death, to reach guinée,” explained Wilentz  “Then you’re a zombie. Some other lucky mortal can control you, it is believed. You’ll do the bidding of your master without question.” This fear helped keep Haitian slaves working, the threat of offending Baron Samedi was also used by slave owners and often slaves themselves to prevent what the masters perceived as a loss of costly resources. The twisted story of staying alive as an alternative to actual death made slaves continue living a life of hell. After reading the essay I was really surprised to learn that zombies originated with African slaves. I had no idea that suicide played such a large roll in the lives of slaves.  The fact that zombies originated from slavery and how slaves were frightened by the threat of being kept under slavery even after death makes me think, what this new love for zombie movies and shows really means. It’s sad and frightening that people feared death because they didn’t want to be enslaved forever. Which lead me to the question, how did the idea of the living dead become what we know as zombies today? Are there are instances in history where similar things happened and how did this evolve into eating and thirsting for human flesh.

In the end zombies are more than Halloween, today’s society, and popular culture at least have put zombies everywhere, without regard to its origins. Famous movies and TV shows such as “The Walking Dead” and “28 Days Later” are watched, and admired. Parties, and even parades. have been devoted to zombies. There are even games such as Plants vs. Zombies and the Resident Evil to which there are six full games in the series filled with nothing but killing zombies. What we might not have noticed is that we have taken this zombie concept for granted and people do not see through, or even think of the history and meaning behind the undead.