Transmissions from the floor
In 1962 Clairvius Narcisse developed a fever with body aches, and began coughing up blood. He reported the sensation of bugs crawling under his skin, which was followed by general paralysis. He was admitted to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, Haiti—mute and unresponsive—and two days later was pronounced dead. His sister identified his body, and he was buried the next day in a cemetery near his hometown of L'Estère. He was survived by his wife and several children, and was remembered in the hearts of all who knew him.
His death had, apparently, been a romeo-and-juliet-esque drug powered hoax that the two American-trained doctors who certified his death failed to see through. He claimed that he was fully aware during his “death”, unable to move or speak, and that after he was buried alive a bokor (a Haitian Vodou witch doctor) dug up his body and revived him with a mysterious potion. He was then apparently forced to work as a slave on a sugar plantation for years, kept in a trance-like state by regular doses of some sort of hallucinogenic substance, until the bokor died and he managed to escape.
By suppressing the ti bon ange the bokor is able to create an empty vessel without agency to mindlessly carry out their bidding. George A. Romero’s 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead introduced the term “zombie” into the American moviegoer lexicon, but this practice of using Vodou sorcery to turn people into mindless husks is what the term was originally referring to.
