What is the theme in The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier?

Religion is another important theme in this story. Religion is an important part of the cultures in the novel. In the black culture developing on Santo Domingo, a central force is voodoo. The black slaves believe that they draw power from the gods, and Macandal, who organizes the poisoning of the white slave owners, is a voodoo priest, a holy man who channels the Loas. The governor identifies the potential danger of voodoo. He correctly attributes a power to voodoo. It has the power to join the slaves together and to give them a focus as they rise up to combat the white enslavers. The plantation owner, however, can't take voodoo seriously. How could someone take seriously a snake god, or any pantheon? He dismisses the voodoo beliefs as childish and beneath contempt, without recognizing their real power to join together the blacks of the island in a united culture.