“I became aware of the difference in my late 20s. I’m Afro-Caribbean, and I’ve always been interested in history, traditions, and cultures that predate colonialism. I always wanted to better understand more where my people came from and our connection to West Africa, but not through a colonial lens.
“People often say that this history doesn’t exist anymore, that it’s been erased and everything on record is told from a Western lens, but that’s just not true.”
She continues, “There are traces of our traditions in music, in food, and in our spiritual traditions, which exist throughout the Americas. I was interested in Vodou, Santería, and Candomblé, but when I found out later in life that the zombie is actually connected to Haitian Vodou, I was shocked, I didn’t know that.
“I’m always so interested in learning about these stories and traditions, and it just blew my mind, and I had to make a film about it.”
Making that movie requires Bedward to contend not with just Romero, but also William Seabrook, the American travel author whose 1929 book The Magic Island first proposed to document Haitian Vodou and zombies. “William Seabrook is a really interesting character,” Bedward says. “He claimed to have a lot of respect for the faith, but at the same time he was about making money, selling books and his whole ‘adventurer’ image.
“What he actually saw in Haiti, I don’t know. He also claimed in books that he was a cannibal. He ate human flesh with cannibals and Africa, and actually that all turned out to be a lie. I think he tried some human flesh later and some type of lab in the States to at least say he did it. So, Seabrook’s just a bit of a character, and you can never really know what’s true and what’s not true with him.”
