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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.
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South African witchcraft zombie

Aussi appelé: xidachane, maduxwane, witch-train zombies
Folklore et mythesMort-vivantSorcellerie

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

L'affronter
Origine
South African (Tsonga, Sotho, Venda)
Afrique du Sud
Ce qui le provoque
Sorcellerie
A witch kills the victim, or makes them seem to die, and takes control of the body for forced labour.
Comment on en devient un
A witch's spell; in some accounts even a small child can zombify a dead person.
Intelligence
Sans cervelle
Points faibles
  • a sufficiently powerful sangoma (traditional healer) can break the spell
notes de terrain

Ce que disent les sources

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

Sources

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

Chaque fait de cette page provient de ces sources, reformulé dans nos propres mots. Une erreur ? Écrivez-nous à [email protected].

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Du folklore des mêmes contrées

UmkhovuZulu, 1875

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