Store

Soup Joumou

Soup joumou

Festival

⚠ THE MOST POLITICAL DISH IN THIS ENTIRE CORPUS. A soup of JOUMOU — giraumon, a turban squash — with beef, cabbage, carrot, turnip, potato, celery, malanga, pasta, lime, Scotch bonnet and epis, cooked long and served thick. ⚠ UNDER FRENCH COLONIAL RULE IT WAS RESERVED FOR THE ENSLAVERS AND FORBIDDEN TO THE ENSLAVED. On 1 JANUARY 1804, with independence declared, Haitians ate it — and have eaten it on every Independence Day since, cooked in quantity and given to neighbours. UNESCO inscribed the joumou soup tradition on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021. ⚠ THE PROHIBITION IS THE TRADITIONAL AND UNIVERSALLY HELD ACCOUNT and the documentary record for the specific ban is thin; the practice and its meaning are not in doubt and the colonial-prohibition detail is recorded as strongly held tradition.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Haitians community documented

Languages: Haitian Creole

What is recorded

  • Soup joumou is eaten on 1 January, Haitian Independence Day, commemorating the declaration of independence in 1804. The joumou soup tradition was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. The account that the dish was reserved for colonists and forbidden to the enslaved is universally held in Haiti and is thinly documented in the colonial record; it is recorded as strongly held tradition, while the practice and its political meaning are not in doubt. documented
  • The joumou soup tradition is inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to French disputed

    ⚠ The tradition that the French reserved joumou for themselves and forbade it to the enslaved is universally held and thinly documented. Recorded as strongly held tradition; the practice and its meaning are not in doubt.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.