Culture in a bowl: Haiti's joumou soup awarded protected status by Unesco

[Judi Lynn]

2. Haiti's New Year's Day soup has made headlines. But let's not be naive about its symbolism

Lyonel Trouillot
Sat 1 Jan 2022 04.15 EST

Sharing soup joumou on 1 January represents what Haitians bring to the world – but remembering that inequality prevails is arguably more important




Whispers. Curfews. Never-ending military parades and shows of arms. Opponents’ bodies exposed for children to see as some sort of macabre art. And always, that nasal voice of “Papa Doc”, François Duvalier, chanting on all radio stations. Those were the days of my childhood under a dictator in Haiti. But on 1 January, Independence Day, there were three things that made a difference.

Children in domestic service would visit their godmother and godfathers’ houses, where an envelope containing a few piastres (money) was waiting for them, probably the only gift they would receive during the year.

Patriotic verses and folkloric songs slipped into the official ceremonies. A touch of art between long and scary diatribes against “the enemy” and unconditional pledges of allegiance to the “chief”. The third was the “joumou”, a soup traditionally shared on the first day of a new year.

At the time, the soup only meant to me that my parents had not made new friends. The same faces were invited to eat it together every year: a very tall judge, a one-eyed lawyer who claimed to be able to communicate with the dead, and selected members of the larger family.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/01/haitis-new-years-day-soup-joumou-has-made-headlines-but-lets-not-be-naive-about-its-symbolism