Hatuey's words, and the zombi as slavery

SUMMARYHatuey's words, and the zombi as slavery (Nov 6, 2026; user drops). HATUEY, how did he speak Spanish? Rule 6 applied to our own source. Record: the words come from Las Casas (Brevísima relación, 1552). He reached Cuba in 1513, after Hatuey was burned (Feb 1512), so it is secondhand. Any exchange with the friar went through interpreters (lenguas); Taíno of Ayiti had lived 20 years under Spanish contact by then, and both sides had interpreters. Record: Las Casas wrote it. Disputed: the exact words. ZOMBI, Record: Haitian Penal Code Art. 246 (paragraphs added Oct 1864 under Geffrard) treats as poisoning the use of "substances which, without giving death, will cause a more-or-less prolonged state of lethargy," and as murder "if the person was buried as a consequence" (trans. Boring, Library of Congress). Record (slavery): belief that the dead return to Ginen unless held as zombi; scholars (Amy Wilentz) tie the modern zombi to slavery, the worker with no will who never goes home; slave drivers reportedly used fear of zombification to deter suicide. Record (US occupation): Seabrook, The Magic Island (1929), on rural people brought to work as zombis at HASCO (Haitian American Sugar Company); the book brought "zombi" into US speech and fed White Zombie (1932). Record: Hurston (1937) on Felicia Felix-Mentor (X-ray didn't match; identity Disputed). Clairvius Narcisse (reported dead 1962, reappeared 1980). Disputed: Wade Davis's tetrodotoxin powder (1983–85; Hines and others question it); Littlewood (Lancet 1997) on mistaken identity. Word: Kimbundu nzumbi (ghost), Kongo nzambi (god) (OED)

CODE (Tito lens)a sound tie to the Taíno zemi and the navel-less opía who walk at night (P792), unproven. Lens: the zombi is the plantation's own nightmare, a body worked forever with its soul held, and HASCO shows the US occupation in the same frame. VESSEL (Tito, Nov 6): "the body is a vessel; it can be brought back and used." Record (Vodou teaching): the person has two souls, the gwo bon anj (life force) and the ti bon anj (the self); a bokor is said to capture the ti bon anj, giving the zombi kò kadav (a body without its self) and the zombi astral (a soul kept in a bottle) (Métraux 1959; Davis 1988). Pattern: the body as a vessel the spirit leaves and others can fill or hold, shared with the Mexica tonalli and teyolia (souls that can leave the body), the Maya way, Kongo minkisi (vessels that hold spirits) and the Taíno opía. Physical revival: OPEN.