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QuoteReplyTopic: Zombies and Voodoo Posted: 30-Oct-2011 at 21:24
Like the European vampire and Eastern ghoul, the Africans have their own myths about the undead. Witch doctors were believed to poison people then resurrect them as mindless slaves. Africans brought these beliefs to the Caribbean plantations and merged them with existing Christian superstitions, transforming the zombie into the flesh-eating walking corpse well-known today
To kill a zombie you had to feed him salt. The taste reminds him he's dead and forces him to return to his grave. A line of salt on your doorstep was also effective in keeping ghosts out of your house as they had to count the grains
The origin of zombie myths can be traced to West African nations like Angola where slaves were captured and shipped to the New World. By feeding their victim a special potion, the witch-doctor gained control of the zombie's soul, forcing it to do its master's bidding and preventing it from resting in the ground
Voodoo gods were a strange hybrid of Christian saints and African deities. Baron Samedi is the master of the dead responsible for stopping corpses coming back as zombies, similar to our own Grim Reaper. If you pray to him he has the power to cure life-threatening illnesses
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