“Finally an authoritative book on that weird, complex figure of the zombie that delves deep into the dark heart of the matter rather than skating the surface. John Cussans is that rare writer who can bring to bear anthropology, cultural studies, colonial and post-colonial history, philosophy, politics, folk-lore and a love of pulp fiction and film to offer a compelling story about how a marginal superstition from the Caribbean became the defining monster of our times. Prepare for a wild ride that moves elegantly from Hegel and Haiti, via Mesmerism, James Bond, Georges Bataille and Surrealism to Papa Doc Duvalier and Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors, always steadily illuminating a path through a forest of delirious details. A truly marvellous journey.”
Roger Lockhurst, author of Zombies: A Cultural History
“Cussans rejects exceptionalist explanations of Vodou and the zombie to present a nuanced description of those phenomena within the international political, economic and cultural environment in which both the realities and the inventions are situated. This comprehensive work is a must read for anyone wishing to understand more about the destinies of African-based religions in the Americas, and especially concerning the uses and abuses of Haitian cultural phenomena by outside interests.”
LeGrace Benson, author of Arts and Religions of Haiti: How the Sun Illuminates Under Cover of Darkness and President of The Haitian Studies Association.
“No one alive, or – almost certainly – deceased, has thought about zombies more voraciously than John Cussans. While the outcome of this feasting is not pretty, what it has unearthed cannot be laid to rest again. Those who doubt the consistency, deep historical momentum, or global significance of the ‘zombie-complex’ will find all such reservations fundamentally challenged by this troubling book. Subsequent to this meticulous and wide-ranging process of exhumation, it is no longer plausible to deny that an inexterminable anticipation of undead uprising continues to define the horizon of our world.”
Nick Land, author of Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism.
Be interesting to know if the Clinton’s hoovering up of Haitian money has been as devastating to Haiti as these protesters suggest. Also if this is reflected in the Zombi Complex or in magical retaliation. Despite it’s crass headline this video contains serious allegations and material relevant to Haiti and it’s image around the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PeO0SfCw5s
I’ll need to do some more digging into the details of some of the more recent claims, such as Hilary Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham, being on the advisory board of the company that has been granted rights to Haitian gold extraction. Seems the Washington Post did something on the story last year: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/role-of-hillary-clintons-brother-in-haiti-gold-mine-raises-eyebrows/2015/03/20/c8b6e3bc-cc05-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html. In terms of the more general claims about the Clinton’s involvement in Haiti, the USAID surplus rice story is well-documented and, for what its worth, Bill Clinton publicly apologized at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his mistakes in March 2010. His role in the disastrous mis-management of the funds raised after the earthquake of 2010 have been documented too (see Raoul Peck’s excellent film about the immediate aftermath of the earthquake ‘Fatal Assistance’:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShAjH0VW0eI). This article by Jonathan M. Katz seems to cover much of the story about the Clinton’s role in Haiti: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/the_truth_about_the_clintons_and_haiti.html. Seems that this sensationalist mondo-style doc, funded by the CEO of the Trump presidential campaign, Stephen K. Bannon, is the source of the most vehement anti-Clinton punditry at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LYRUOd_QoM.
It seems like some of this needs to be taken with a pinch of anti-reactionary salt.
The zombie-problem, as I define it, has more to do with radically divided nature of the contemporary zombie, on the one hand utterly compliant and remotely controlled, and the other, inhumanly insurrectionary and beyond control, tropes rooted historically in colonial reactions to the Haitian revolution. But we are all, to some extent, zombies of historical consciousness, especially with regard to Haiti, a country that has not been well-served in this regard. So the more we can learn about the role of the Clinton’s in Haiti, the better.