The unlikely originator of the word zombie in English is Robert Southey, a distinguished social reformer, scholar and linguist. For the last 30 years of his life Southey was Britain’s Poet Laureate, and his earlier translation of Spanish and Portuguese texts included A History of Brazil in which he defined the zombie as a chief of Brazilian natives. The word derives from the Angolan for God, and in this first reference Southey notes the African origin, but the menacing implication of “living death” that we associate with the word today would only be added much later.
It was the American journalist and occultist William Seabrook who would introduce the element of horror with The Magic Island, a 1929 exploration of voodoo and cannibalism. Filmed as The White Zombie it gave a memorable starring role to Bela Lugosi, but the zombie movie would only gain true cult popularity in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. Filmed on a tiny budget, the film follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse by predators who have inexplicably risen from the grave. These creatures were called ghouls in the film, but director George Romero subsequently used the word zombie in interviews, and it stuck.
It spawned a whole genre of movies where zombies threaten civilization as we know it. Michael Jackson’s Thriller (yes it was made as long ago as 1983) featured zombies dancing with the singer, and horror master Stephen King is one of many authors to contribute to the genre. The word has also been adopted as a general adjective for empty existence. Zombie computers are hacked PCs which send spam without the user’s knowledge, and zombie banks are financial institutions which somehow remain “alive” despite having no tangible worth.
In 2003 American author Max Brooks tapped into our fear of the unknown by publishing The Zombie Survival Guide, a handy checklist for dealing with the dangers of an undead attack. It soon appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Seeing the commercial opportunity, Brooks followed up in 2006 with World War Z. This chronicle of the global battle between mankind and the living dead has sold over a million copies and the 2013 film adaptation has generated over USD 500 million in ticket sales. Zombies may have no interest in money but they have proved to be a very useful source of revenue. All in all, we have moved a long way from the dignified Mr Southey who primly advised Charlotte Bronte than she should not write, because “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life”.
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