A Blood Sacrifice

“Not for nothing had the those mighty towers arisen, on the mighty bellowing of the bulls, bleeding, their testicles toward the sun, at the hands of the builders well aware of the deep significance of the sacrifice even though they had told the ignorant that this represented an advance in technique of military engineering.”

                The Kingdom of this World, Alejo Carpentier, translated by Harriet de Onís, page 75

Citadelle Laferrière built by Henri Christophe

                At this time in Kingdom of this World, “King” Henri Christophe, a former slave cook who appointed himself king after the Haitian Revolution, is building a massive fortified castle using the forced labor of other former slaves. Every day in the parade square of the fortress while it was under construction several bulls had their throats cut and their blood was added to the mortar being used to supposedly make the structure stronger. This daily act was actually more of a ritual sacrifice than an architectural engineering technique. Clearly this was an act of religious sacrifice.

                In the Bible sacrifice is a common occurrence. The offering of sacrifices was an integral part of the Mosaic Law. The Bible Dictionary describes the purposes of sacrifice and their religious significance.  When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden God gave them the law of sacrifice, which would be a type and representation of the sacrifice and shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten.  There were three kinds of altar sacrifices: sin offerings, burnt, offerings, and peace offerings. Young bulls were the sacrificial animals for sin offerings

                Jews sacrificed Bulls to receive a remission of their sins, a symbol of humility and repentance. The Haitians in the book are sacrificing bulls to raise up a prideful impenetrable structure.  Like the people who built the Tower of Babel, they were building a structure to try and elevate themselves-specifically, King Henri Cristophe, who was proud and arrogant in the wake of the defeat of the French- to the level of God.