Q 01/05

Dictionaries trace the English word 'zombie' back to which group of African languages?

A) Bantu

B) Berber

C) Semitic

D) Khoisan

Answer · why

A) Bantu

Dictionaries trace 'zombie' to Bantu languages of West-Central Africa, such as Kikongo zumbi and Kimbundu nzambi; the English word is first recorded i...

Q 02/05

Which 1929 W. B. Seabrook travel book introduced Western readers to the Haitian voodoo zombie?

A) The Living Isle

B) The Magic Island

C) Voodoo Nights

D) The Sleeping Dead

Answer · why

B) The Magic Island

William Seabrook's The Magic Island (1929) popularised the Haitian zombie in the West; its account of drugged plantation workers inspired the screenpl...

Q 03/05

Which 1932 Bela Lugosi film is generally considered the first feature-length movie of the genre?

A) Revolt of the Zombies

B) I Walked with a Zombie

C) White Zombie

D) King of the Zombies

Answer · why

C) White Zombie

White Zombie (1932), made independently by Victor and Edward Halperin with Lugosi as the sorcerer Murder Legendre, is usually counted as the first fea...

Q 04/05

Roughly how many years after his 1962 'death' did Clairvius Narcisse reappear at a Haitian market?

A) 35

B) 22

C) 27

D) 18

Answer · why

D) 18

Narcisse was declared dead in May 1962 and walked up to his sister in a village market in 1980, 18 years later, convincing her with a childhood nickna...

Q 05/05

Wade Davis claimed Haitian 'zombie powder' relied on tetrodotoxin, found in which animal?

A) Pufferfish

B) Poison dart frog

C) Cone snail

D) Box jellyfish

Answer · why

A) Pufferfish

Davis argued the 'coup de poudre' contained tetrodotoxin from pufferfish, whose poison can mimic death; his 1982 Haiti fieldwork became the 1985 book ...