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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.
Dosiye No. 438 kuri 446

South African witchcraft zombie

Yitwa kandi: xidachane, maduxwane, witch-train zombies
Imigani n'inkuru za keraAbapfuye bazimaUbupfumu

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

Bashyire ku murwano
Inkomoko
South African (Tsonga, Sotho, Venda)
Afurika y'Epfo
Icyayiteye
Ubupfumu
A witch kills the victim, or makes them seem to die, and takes control of the body for forced labour.
Uko umuntu ahinduka zombi
A witch's spell; in some accounts even a small child can zombify a dead person.
Ubwenge
Nta bwenge
Intege nke
  • a sufficiently powerful sangoma (traditional healer) can break the spell
inyandiko zo ku kibuga

Ibyo amasoko avuga

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

Amasoko

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

Buri kintu kiri kuri iyi paji gikomoka kuri aya masoko, cyanditswe mu magambo yacu. Wabonye ikosa? Tubwire kuri [email protected].

Gaburira igikundi. Nta matangazo, nta bikurikirana, byishyurwa n'umuntu umwe. Agashimwe gatuma bikomeza kuboneka kuri interineti.Tanga agashimwe

Imigani yo mu bihugu bimwe

UmkhovuZulu, 1875

Ibindi nk'ibi

GhoulArabicPocongJavanese / Indonesian and MalayRo-langsTibetanToyolMalay and IndonesianXiangxi walking corpsesChinese (western Hunan; attributed to Miao sorcery)CondenadoAndean (Peru and Bolivia)
Gaburira igikundiTanga agashimwe