The U.K.’s Daily Mail reports the that Max Beauvoir, the “Voodoo Pope” celebrated his Greater Feast this passed Sunday. In the 1980’s Harvard professor Wade Davis travelled to Haiti to investigate reports of zombie who had returned to his local village after being declared dead and buried some 18 years earlier, and been resuscitated and then enslaved on a sugar plantation. Beauvoir gave him invaluable help in his research which led to Davis’ book The Serpent And the Rainbox which provided some vague inspiration for the film of the same name by the late Wes Craven. The article explains:
“Beauvoir introduced the Professor to a ‘bokor’, or sorcerer, who gave him a magical ‘zombie powder’ recipe with the power to resurrect the dead.
“Davis was so convinced by the wonder powder that he wrote the cult book ‘the Serpent and the Rainbow‘, which was turned into a a movie blockbuster directed by Wes Craven, starring Bill Pullman – and sparked a new genre of zombie movies, myths and horror stories.
“The ‘Godfather of Voodoo’, Beauvoir, who passed away on Saturday, was the head of Haiti’s 6,000 ‘houngans’, or witchdoctors.”
read the entire article here – and try and pick up a copy of Davis’ book which is a relatively sober look at the religious traditions and folkways of Haitian vodoun and hoodoo, very different from the film
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3233729/The-witch-doctor-proved-zombies-REAL-spine-tingling-story-Haitian-Voodoo-leader-revealed-secrets-zombie-powder-given-West-nightmares-since.html
