Final Project-The Kingdom of This World (Part I)

The first part of this book is about a man named Macandal. Macandal is a Mandingue Negro who told Ti Noël, the main character, stories of the kingdoms in Africa. Macandal was the one who told Ti Noël the difference between the African king and the "white monarchs." To Macandal, the African king was strong, brave, a warrior, a hunter, a judge, and a priest. On the other hand, the "white monarch" was the opposite. Macandal's arm was amputated in an accident in the plantation. After his amputation, Macandal is given less laborious work. Macandal flees from the plantation and can't be found. According to the white masters, the word "Mandingue" means "intractable, rebellious, a devil" (21). Macandal's disappearance deeply affects Ti Noël because Macandal's stories are deeply missed. Macandal had fled the plantation, but still kept in contact with the slaves on the plantation and was living in a cave. I learned later in the first part that Macandal was a houngan, which is a male voodoo priest, and was responsible for the poison that attacked the plantation. Macandal was also the houngan of the Rada rite and the Lord of Poison. Macandal is able to metamorphose into any shape and size and is able to communicate with two of the biggest voodoo loas/lwas (spirits). After making a complete cycle of metamorphose, Macandal returned back to the plantation in his human form. When he returned, the white masters captured him and burned him, thinking that they destroyed Macandal. However, the slaves know that Macandal remained "in the Kingdom of This World" (46). When I first started reading the book, I tried to figure out how Alejo Carpentier was part of the "magical realism" writers, but based on the first portion of the book, I can see why. Carpentier makes voodoo, a religion based on spirits and is illogical, a part of the daily live of a slave in Haiti. Because voodoo is emphasized in the slaves, voodoo seems realistic or even "normal" in the setting of the book. The way Carpentier presents voodoo makes me think that it is something real and does exist, not just something that people made up.