August 11, 2008
The Ethics of Zombification, Really!
Under Haitian law, zombification — the act or art of converting people into zombies — is regarded as a vile, heinous crime that is no less abhorrent to the conscience of civilized men than premeditated murder for profit.
Ask any Haitian what he thinks of the law that equates zombification with murder, and he will no doubt tell you that though he is aware of the contradiction in the law—the dead victim being actually alive — he sees it as a necessay deterrent to evil. He will tell you that no one should have to constantly worry about getting up one morning only to find out that the intelligent, beautiful and vivacious child you cuddle to sleep the night before has been reduced to a dull, stupid zombie because some hooligan stole his ti-bon-ange, his soul, while he/she was peacefully resting. “Enough fear in our communities!” he would interject at the end of a long, impassioned monologue; “All zombie-makers should be tied together in a solid bundle, carted to the harbor and dumped into the sea!” Such is the depth of revulsion and anger that the mere mention of the zombie-makers provokes in the mind of the average Haitian.
But wait, not so fast! Says Wade Davis, these fellows are not the evil operators they have been made out to be in the public’s eyes. The Haitian authorities are plainly mistaken, and you, the citizens, should cool your emotions. The zombie-makers deserve your support, not your scorn! (Of course, this is a paraphrase.)
Sent to Haiti by his Harvard mentor to try to solve the mystery of the “zombie phenomenon,” young Davis initially found the clandestine operation almost impenetrable, shrouded, as it were, in a tight veil of secrecy. Not one to be discouraged, he patiently befriended the ‘natives,’ got invited to Voodoo ceremonies and joined the houngans (Voodoo priests) in their inner sanctum for private consultations. Following a protracted period of courtship, Davis was able to calm the Hougans’ anxiety about sharing their “secrets” with a blan (a white man.) In return, they agreed to give him a tiny sample of the coveted zombie powder but not before they made him disgorge an undisclosed amount of money. As it turned out, the powder contained little in terms of active ingredients. Only a minute amount of Tetradotoxin (the puffer fish toxin) was detected by subsequent analysis in a US laboratory, not enough to paralyze a human being, let alone kill him or turn him into a zombie, whatever that means. Was that a fleece? Who knows!
Davis might have been duped into buying a worthless powder for real money, but he was not one to hold a grudge. He found these “native Haitians” to be genuinely nice people and valued their company and friendship a great deal. Which is to say, he ended up getting too close to his study subjects, and could no longer lay claim to impartiality — a mortal sin for any researcher. He clearly became empathetic toward them and came to feel as though he had to defend his “friends” against the nasty concept of “murder by zombification” enshrined in the Haitian Penal Code in a vain attempt to control the zombie industry as it is believed to exist. These fellows, he says, are not criminals, and zombification is not a vile act carried out by mean, evil-minded men. They are part of a well organized group of “Secret Societies” with names like Zobop, Sanpwel, Vlenbendeng and Bizango, which operates in the rural communities as the guardians of the peace. These organizations, he explained, took roots during the colonial era when the rebellious slaves used to convene in the woods to strategize, in preparation for the general revolution. The hierarchical system they built never disbanded and lo, they became today’s Secret Societies, operating as an alternative to Haiti’s Western-style justice system which failed to gain a foothold in the rural communities out of sheer neglect of the central government (Davis, pp272-280.)
Thus, Davis says, zombification is not carried out in a vacuum. Zombification, he says, does not take place unless and until it has been authorized by the local “Tribunal of the Elders,” acting as a sort of Judicial Review Board whose ruling is binding. It’s like a Rural Supreme Court. Take Clairvius Narcisse, the best known Haitian zombie to date! Davis claims that he was slated for zombification because he was impregnating women right and left, then, walked away, showing no concerns for the women, or for the legion of children he had deserted. Following a formal review by the “Court of Elders,” Narcisse was found to be, indeed, a deprave man and a menace to society. For the good of the community, he had to be neutralized. Thus, David contends, zombification is not an evil act carried out without forethought or due process; it is a reasoned, ethical act that merits consideration if not recognition by the larger Haitian community.
As a result of this claim, the question arises as to what constitutes an ethical act? Is an act ethical simply because it is aimed at achieving a noble goal, in this case, the protection of the community against the doings of a sexual pervert? Or, is there more to ethics than meets the eye?
The answer to this question is made plain in the Golden Rule which commands us to “Do unto others whatever you would wish them do unto you.” Which is to say, from an ethical standpoint, personal and social problems are to be resolved purely and exclusively on the basis of love of humanity and total respect for individual rights. Ethics’ main concern, indeed, is the validation and the upholding of the dignity of the human nature. Fundamentally, it seeks to promote love, beauty, peace and harmony. On the other hand, to completely dehumanize a fellow man, to deprive him of his soul and of his intellect so that he is reduced, in the end, to being a pitiful, ugly beast, is to trample on the very foundation of ethics. Under no circumstances, then, could zombification pass for a worthy or ethical act.
Some have argued that the threat of zombification is to Voodoo what the threat of hellfire is to Christianity, an artifice designed to inspire awe and respect for the Almighty, to control people’s behavior and insure compliance with community traditions. In fact, the two could not be more dissimilar. Hellfire, as far as one can tell, is a parable, since a Benevolent and Loving Father could not possibly condemn His children to roast for eternity, without the prospect of redemption. Furthermore, hellfire does not generate among Christians the pervasive fear that zombification creates among Haitians. It only invites the faithful to be the best he/she can be. It is also fair to say that hellfire is not a concern at all in the daily lives of Christians. Zombification, by contrast, is a frightening reality that is ever present in the mind of the Haitian peasant; and the fact that it is enshrined in the law as a murderous act means that it cannot possibly be, at the same time, a component of spiritual or religious life. It is rather part of a world that is utterly profane and ugly.
Thus, as a concept that promotes the total dehumanization and the enslavement of unsuspected men, zombification is antithetical to the fundamental principles of ethics it pretends to espouse. As the foundation of an Article of law that victimizes innocent people, it is even more problematic, since it deals with the supernatural — an invisible, intangible reality — which ensnares the accused in a catch-22 predicament, and takes his life away. On both the conceptual and legal accounts, then, zombification ought to be rejected in favor of a sounder approach to law and order.
1. Wade Davis, Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie, University of North Carolina Press, 1988