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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.
Faira nhamba 438 pa 446

South African witchcraft zombie

Rinonziwo: xidachane, maduxwane, witch-train zombies
Ngano nezvitendero zvekareVakafa vakamukaUroyi

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

Ita hondo
Kwakabva
South African (Tsonga, Sotho, Venda)
South Africa
Chikonzero chacho
Uroyi
A witch kills the victim, or makes them seem to die, and takes control of the body for forced labour.
Kuti munhu anova zombie sei
A witch's spell; in some accounts even a small child can zombify a dead person.
Njere
Risina njere
Utera
  • a sufficiently powerful sangoma (traditional healer) can break the spell
zvinyorwa zvemumunda

Zvinotaurwa nezvinyorwa

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

Zvinyorwa

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

Chokwadi chese chiri papeji iyi chinobva muzvinyorwa izvi, chakanyorwa nemazwi edu. Waona chikanganiso? Tiudze pa [email protected].

Fudza mhomho. Hapana zvishambadzo, hapana zvinoteverera, inobhadharwa nemunhu mumwe chete. Chipo chemari chinoita kuti irambe iri paindaneti.Siya chipo chemari

Ngano dzekunyika dzimwe chete

UmkhovuZulu, 1875

Zvimwe zvakafanana

GhoulArabicPocongJavanese / Indonesian and MalayRo-langsTibetanToyolMalay and IndonesianXiangxi walking corpsesChinese (western Hunan; attributed to Miao sorcery)CondenadoAndean (Peru and Bolivia)
Fudza mhomhoSiya chipo chemari