*note: due to the awesomeness of these photos and the degree of attention to detail the persons herein put into their costumes, I shall break blog etiquette and allow images to appear in something close to their full resolution despite the havoc it wreaks with the blog layout*
Since 2010, every year around Halloween, brings hordes of young people dressed as zombies to walk down Cape Town, to go to a bar and drink. All in the name of charity. It is the Zombie Walk.
Zombies have been an active part of our imagination and fiction for a very long time. However they do not have the same aesthetic appeal as their undead counterpart, the vampire; nor the power and prestige of the mummy. They do not have a venerable mythos like the werewolves, nor the tragedy of Frankenstein's monster. They are either the result of some misguided experiment that has gone terribly wrong or under the control of a necromancer. So then it would make sense that if you want to get a large group of people to move together, and still get to dress up, zombies is the perfect choice (aside from maybe the army or a riot).
But while I was walking I could not help feeling a bit guilty about all the fun I was having. You see, I am deeply cynical. So half way through the walk I looked around and thought to myself, hey, we are a group of similar-looking people all walking in the same direction because we were told to. I hate using the word 'conform' and I avoid the phrase 'non-conformism' like a leper avoids roller-coasters. This time however, I am forced to bend my accustomed vocabulary. Having a group of people dress up like zombies and walk up and down a stretched of beautiful coastline in the heart of Cape Town might just well be the epitome of conformism. It is the mimicry of mindless followers pandering to a popular cultural image. It may even be the very thing that individuals and creative people should avoid at the cost of losing their souls.
It's not though. It is a testament to the irrepressible creative energy of the individual. The great variety in the costumes; such as the homage's to pirates, illustrates how in the throngs of a possibly marginalizing environment we find a means to be ourselves. Well, that and dressing up like the undead, screaming "Brains!" is just hella fun.
I had seen the photographs of this event before and looked upon them with waves of great jealousy. I was very exited to get to go myself this time around. It did not disappoint. As we walked past a group of kids playing on a slide they ran up and started to scream with fear. Seeing as we are all kind, loving people doing our bit for charity, we harassed the kids and made them cry. Ah, there a few things as satisfying as scaring a child in an amusing manner. Then again it was not us, we were in the character of the Zombie; we were using the Method. There were pirate zombies, charters from Left For Dead, nurse zombies, sexy zombies, slave zombies, goth zombies. The best thing about the zombie the theme is that you can do pretty much anything as long as you make it look dead and decaying. Plus it kinda (but not completely) goes against the overtly sexy -- unless you are into that kind of thing.
Thank you to my friends at Wanderlust Games for inviting me, and all the friends I went with whom I had not seen in over two years. It was great to see you all again. I am sorry it has taken me so long to come and visit. Farewell until next year. Though I don't think I will dress up like a Zombie Life Insurance Salesman again.
Zombie Walk Contact Info
Phone 074 112 1960
Email zombiewalk.capetown@gmail.com
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