The Kingdom Of This World

Part 3 begins as Ti Noël returns to Haiti after having been won in a game of mus. Working for his new enslaver, he has saved up his yearly Christmas bonus and paid his way for passage on a fishing boat. He walks through the countryside talking to inanimate objects, a habit he developed long before. Eventually, he finds several signs that indicate the presence of gods, including Legba. He falls on his knees in gratitude.

Ti Noël arrives at the Lenormand de Mézy plantation, which is now decimated. Several men pass by on horses; intrigued, Ti Noël follows them. He discovers Black men working in an orchard and assumes they are prisoners. Beyond is a pink palace filled with ladies holding fans and the sounds of classical music. Everyone—the ladies, the priests, the butlers—is Black. Ti Noël realizes he is at “Sans-Souci, the favorite residence of King Henri Christophe, who had once been the chef on the Street of the Spaniards” (79). As he marvels, Ti Noël is hit and instructed to go to work carrying bricks. He protests but is struck again and forced to work.