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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.
Ifayile No. 438 kwa-446

South African witchcraft zombie

Ikwabizwa ngokuba: xidachane, maduxwane, witch-train zombies
Iintsomi zemveli namabali amanduloIvuswe ekufeniUbugqwirha

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

Yiphose edabini
Imvelaphi
South African (Tsonga, Sotho, Venda)
UMzantsi Afrika
Oko kuyibangelayo
Ubugqwirha
A witch kills the victim, or makes them seem to die, and takes control of the body for forced labour.
Indlela umntu aba yiyo ngayo
A witch's spell; in some accounts even a small child can zombify a dead person.
Ubukrelekrele
Ayinangqondo
Iindawo ezibuthathaka
  • a sufficiently powerful sangoma (traditional healer) can break the spell
amanqaku ophando

Oko kuthethwa yimithombo

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

Imithombo

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

Yonke inyaniso ekweli phepha ivela kule mithombo, ibhalwe ngamazwi ethu. Ubone impazamo? Sixelele ku-[email protected].

Yondla umkhosi. Akukho zintengiso, akukho zilandeli, ihlawulelwa ngumntu omnye. Ithiphu iyigcina ikwi-intanethi.Shiya ithiphu

Iintsomi zemveli ezivela kumazwe afanayo

UmkhovuZulu, 1875

Ezinye ezifana nale

GhoulArabicPocongJavanese / Indonesian and MalayRo-langsTibetanToyolMalay and IndonesianXiangxi walking corpsesChinese (western Hunan; attributed to Miao sorcery)CondenadoAndean (Peru and Bolivia)
Yondla umkhosiShiya ithiphu