Exhibition <<ZOMBIES, la mort n’est pas une fin? >> at the Quai Branly Jacques Chirac museum in Paris.
From October 8, 2020, to February 16, 2025, an exhibition focused on the figure of the zombie (is death not the end?) will be on display at the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac in Paris. The exhibition explores both its current cinematic representation and its true origins. The exhibition was curated by Haitian collaborators to ensure accuracy and incorporate social, religious, and cultural elements that enrich the narrative.
In this way, the exhibition delves into the very origin of the Bantu word nzambi, meaning "spirit of the dead," and how African beliefs and folklore arrived in the Americas through slavery, evolving into syncretic religions and practices such as Haitian Vodou. It connects the sentiments of past slavery with those of social control through zombification. The zombie is actually a person subjected to the effects of drugs so powerful that they feign death. They are buried and later exhumed, damaged to such an extent that their will is completely nullified. But these afflicted individuals were not, in principle, ordinary people, but rather criminals who drastically disrupted public order and had to return, to their shame, to a state of slavery, of dehumanization.
This is where goofer dust originates—a mixture of cemetery soil, ashes, and toxic substances—requiring extensive knowledge of medicine, dosages, and poisons… and the bokor, the "masters" of the undead. The exhibition also delves into the categories of zombies, the secret societies and experts in this matter, such as the Bizango, and the curses (oudanga), showcasing fetishes, bangosa dolls, and authentic ritual objects as a highlight, in addition to examples of African art related to these beliefs. This, combined with the recreation of a Voodoo temple, a Makaya chamber (for judging criminals), and a traditional cemetery, creates a total and complete immersion in experiencing the mystical origins of the zombie, complete with ambient drum music, an exhibition of costumes in traditional magical-religious colors, and more. Understanding the exhibition's title is aided by all the perspectives of Haitian spirituality, where the deceased continue to be visited, receive offerings, converse, and be invited.
Throughout the exhibition, ancient references are chronologically recorded, such as those found in African American laws and ritual objects marked to prevent zombification, leading to its introduction to the Western world through the poems of travelers like Pierre-Corneille de Bessebois, with his tale "Le Zombi du Grand Pérou" from 1697, and later, with the American occupations and the visits of ethnologists like Alfred Mero, whose photographs opened the Caribbean to the world in the 1960s. And above all, cinema, with the new cinematic figure of the "living dead"—for which a series of screenings and discussions has been organized—and especially Gabriel A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, demonstrates that the zombie has already been transformed into something entirely different from its origins, becoming a form of entertainment and an apocalyptic social metaphor. All of this raises the question not only of how the zombie is an alienated character adapted to modern society, but also that the fears of the Western world are not the living dead themselves, but the unknown—in this case, the denigrated Haitian and African cultures.
We're sharing a report from Haiti Inter (in French) about a guided tour of the exhibition featuring Erol Josué, a Vadou priest and dancer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwdKEEhbAnA
And of course, the museum's official website has all the information you need to visit or attend related film screenings:
Pietro V. Carracedo Ahumada - pietrocarracedo@gmail.com
