Soup joumou

Soup joumou (/dʒuːmuː/; French: soupe au giraumon) is a famous mildly spicy soup native to Haitian cuisine.

Soup joumou

Soup joumou
Alternative names	Soupe au giraumon
Type	Soup
Place of origin	Haiti
Main ingredients	Squash, beef, potatoes, vegetables
Cookbook: Soup joumou

The soup is traditionally based on a large winter squash that resembles a pumpkin. The squash slices are simmered in a saucepan along with pieces of beef, potato, plantains and vegetables such as parsley, carrots, green cabbage, celery and onions. The pumpkin is then puréed, usually in a food processor, with water and the purée is returned to the saucepan. Salt and seasoning along with garlic and other herbs and spices are then added. Some Haitians often add thin pasta such as vermicelli and macaroni and a small amount of butter or oil. A dash of lime juice is added before serving. The soup is always served hot and is usually accompanied with a sliced bread which dipped in the soup.[1][2][3]

Social connotations & celebration

Soup joumou has multiple social and symbolic meanings for the Haitian people. During slavery, only the French colonial masters and plantation owners were allowed to enjoy this delicacy, a delicacy prepared by slaves.[4] After the revolution, the free Haitians were finally able to eat this meal. The soup came to represent freedom, emancipation and independence. It functions as a reminder of the revolution that liberated the Haitian population. On January 1, Haitians both at home and in the diaspora celebrate the first successful slave rebellion that transferred political power its slave majority, with this soup.[2] A local street-food vendor in Haiti was interviewed about the significance of her job and the purpose of her people, she replied “Nou se revolisyonè, nou pran swen youn lot” or "We are revolutionaries; we take care of each other." Specifically, soup joumou was a food source for the French colonial masters on the plantations of Haiti.[2] The meal was ideal for Haitian slaves who were restricted to rations and scraps of food left by their masters “leftovers like, like things like mayi moulen, cornmeal and those types of things. From a Haitian perspective, "it’s almost like the squash was more of a like, French people thing, like, the whites, that’s what they could eat. So the minute that they were able to gain their independence, they used that. They were like, “We will have soup joumou as a memory of that.”

Culture retention/Remembrance:

Understandably, the enormous number of slaves transported to Haiti to increase production of the world's largest coffee and sugar producers, could not completely replicate the social and political structures present at their previous homes. However, the slaves, many of whom were previously war captives, did acquire artistic and metallurgical skills as well as ideologies. The cultural retention of these slaves was present in their religious ideas, musical improvisation, culinary techniques, cooperation and linguistic repertoires. Slaves brought to the western hemisphere specifically in places such as Charleston, Memphis, New Orleans, Havana, Port-au Prince, and Kingston have been described as superstitious, religious, and spiritual with direct traces to their African diasporic roots. Slaves were observed to “fetishize the dead" through traditions of family graveyards... faith healing... [and] root doctoring.” Much of this was retained in the culinary practices used to create combination of foods, with soup joumou being an example in Haiti using the accessible pumpkin like squash that is the base for the soup and gumbo popularly consumed by slaves in many southern states in the US. Both are combination food, a common phenomenon in African culinary traditions. In some Haitian households, the making of soup joumou includes the addition of an ingredient, okra or okro, a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods.

After all of the slave labor that propelled the colony into being the world's highest sugar and coffee producers by the end of the 18th century... it was still illegal for the slaves who prepared the food to taste the finished product of soup joumou. Hence, it is no coincidence that Haitians take tremendous pride in consuming the soup that they were once forbidden to eat on the day of its independence. Consequently, Soup Joumou is traditionally consumed on New Year's Day (January 1), in reverence for and tribute to Haitian independence which occurred in 1804.[2][3]