The Case of Clairvius Narcisse

In 1962, a man named Clairvius Narcisse died in a hospital in Haiti. His death was recorded by a physician, a death certificate was issued, and he was buried the next day in the cemetery of his village, Morne-Lafortune.

Eighteen years later, a man approached his sister in a market and called her by a childhood nickname that only the family knew. She recognized her brother. He said that he had been taken from his grave, and that for years he had been forced to work on a plantation, with other men in the same condition.

The front page of La Gazette de Port-au-Prince, 1980.

When I arrived in Haiti, the story was already famous. I was asked, as a botanist, a simple question: could a preparation of plants or animals produce a state that looks like death closely enough to deceive a family, and a doctor?

I spent most of my second and third seasons on that question. I obtained several powders and studied their ingredients. Some contained substances that can, in theory, slow the heart and the breathing to the point where a person appears to be dead. I want to be clear that I do not publish, and never will publish, the composition or the preparation of these powders. They are dangerous, and they belong to the people who make them.

My conclusions were cautious, and they were not well received. Some of my colleagues found that I had gone too far. The newspapers found that I had not gone far enough. A magazine wrote that I had "found the zombie powder". I had found nothing of the kind.

What I believe today is this. The powder is perhaps the least important part of the story. A man was declared dead. His family mourned him. He had no name, no papers, no wages, and no one was looking for him. And during all those years, someone made him work.

Note added June 20, 2006. Clairvius Narcisse died in 1994. I never met him. I spoke twice with members of his family, who asked me not to report what they told me. I have respected their wish.