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Illustration of South African witchcraft zombie
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Fayl No. 438 diga 446

South African witchcraft zombie

Wi'aama fahin: xidachane, maduxwane, witch-train zombies
Haala e tuugnorgalMaayɓe yaaɗooɓeSihiru

In parts of South Africa, witchcraft belief includes people turned into zombies to labour for a witch. The victims are thought of as the stolen dead: small, mute and put to work at night. Stories of 'witch trains' staffed by zombies spread once railways began carrying migrant workers to the mines and cities. Scholars treat the belief as a commentary on labour exploitation, which is the same anxiety that produced the Haitian zombi.12

Haɓdu e mo
Ƴiiɗal
South African (Tsonga, Sotho, Venda)
Afirka ta Kudu
Ko waɗi ɗum
Sihiru
A witch kills the victim, or makes them seem to die, and takes control of the body for forced labour.
No a wonata gooto
A witch's spell; in some accounts even a small child can zombify a dead person.
Hakkiilo
Walaa hakkiilo
Ñaawooje
  • a sufficiently powerful sangoma (traditional healer) can break the spell
winndaa ɗo nokku

Ko sorsi ɗin mbi'i

1

Called xidachane in Sotho and Tsonga and maduxwane in Venda12

2

Imagined as shrunken in size, with the tongue cut out so that it cannot speak or protest12

3

Witch trains, ordinary-looking trains crewed by zombies, were said to abduct people at night12

4

Passengers were either zombified or beaten and thrown off far from home12

5

Anthropologist Isak Niehaus reads the belief as a picture of migrant labour and domination12

Sorsi

  1. Zombie - Wikipedia
  2. Zombies - Encyclopedia.com

Ko fuu e sondol ɗoo ƴiiɗi diga sorsi ɗin, winndaama e kuuɗe amen. A yi'i juumre? Haala men e [email protected].

Ñaamnu jamaa'aru zombi. Walaa sanneeji, walaa jokkooɓe, gooto tan yoɓata. Tippu waɗata ngam sayt ndun heddoo e internet.Accu tippu

Haala diga leydi gooto

UmkhovuZulu, 1875

Wa'uɓe ɗum

GhoulArabicPocongJavanese / Indonesian and MalayRo-langsTibetanToyolMalay and IndonesianXiangxi walking corpsesChinese (western Hunan; attributed to Miao sorcery)CondenadoAndean (Peru and Bolivia)
Ñaamnu jamaa’aru zombiAccu tippu