What undead creature from Haitian folklore is reanimated through magic? The answer is a zombie.
In Haitian folklore, a zombie is a dead person or corpse brought back through magical means, traditionally by a bokor, a sorcerer associated with Vodou. The reanimated person is often portrayed as lacking free will and being forced to serve the bokor. Haitian traditions also describe an incorporeal “astral zombie,” a spiritual aspect of a person that can be captured or contained.
The word entered English through Haitian French and Haitian Creole, with possible roots in Central African languages such as Kimbundu and Kongo. The concept became widely known in the United States after William Seabrook’s 1929 book The Magic Island.
Modern films often change the idea substantially. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) helped popularize the flesh-eating, epidemic-style zombie, although the film itself did not call its creatures zombies. That cinematic version is distinct from the magically controlled figure of Haitian folklore.