Have you ever had assumed that things like freedom?
Yes., I said it.
Freedom!
In 1791.
The enslaved people of the French colony of Saint Domingue now Haiti, shocked the world by setting fire to the sugar cane fields.
Revolting against the slave system that kept them in bondage.
They prevailed, gaining their freedom and establishing Haiti on New Year's Day in 1804.
Ever since, Haitians have celebrated Independence Day making soup joumou, a dish steeped in African traditions.
But how did a soup become a symbol of freedom for the citizens of the first Black Republic?
And what stories does this ritual hold for Haitian immigrants far from home?
I'm Tarriona "Tank" Ball and this is Ritual.
The beloved Haitian Independence Day soup is decadent by design, its low simmer broth is made with choice bits of marinated meat, a delicate squash puree, and finished with a mlange of spices and vegetable.
During the 17th and 18th century, enslaved people, many of whom had been born in Africa, were forced to prepare the dish for their white masters.
At the same time, there were denied the right to make it for their families.
The soup symbolized social status, and by prohibiting the enslaved from eating it, French colonizers further asserted their dominance.
But all that changed after the slaves won their freedom from colonizers during what is now known as the Haitian Revolution.
Marie-Claire Heureuse Flicit Bonheur Dessalines, the first Empress of Haiti, declared that to celebrate their liberation, the African population would feast on the coveted soup they were once denied.
I met with historian Dr. Kodi Roberts to discuss how the Haitian Revolution changed world history.
Hey, Dr. Kodi How you doing?
I'm so excited to be here with you.
You are so interesting, so smart, so cool.
That means a lot coming from you.
I mean you're historian and I'm so curious about some of the things that, you know.
What was Haiti like before its revolution?
So actually, the earliest Western European settlers land on the island that they call Hispaniola, half that island is taken by the French.
They rename it Saint Domingue, which eventually becomes Haiti.
After the revolution, the French spent most of the 18th century importing 500,000 Haitians, African slaves to Haiti to work on sugar plantations in Haiti, making Haiti the most profitable colonial possession in the new world at that time.
That is so amazing.
What happened post Haitian Revolution?
It becomes the first successful slave rebellion in the new world and the only slave rebellion to create an independent black nation.
So after the Haitian Revolution, you have the French trying to force Haiti to pay for their "lost property".
They're talking about black people, right?
And so they forced them to pay huge amounts of money in modern dollars.
You're talking about billions of dollars for their, quote, lost property.
It's an unfathomable idea for I have to pay you for my freedom.
I have to pay you for my victory.
It's not an accident that the nation falls into economic into political disarray.
It's a situation that's engineered by these other global powers in order to protect their own slave regimes.
After the revolution and arguably during the revolution as well you get this huge outmigration of Haitians, a lot of Haitian enslavers who are looking to maintain control of the black people who they own flee Haiti, some of them to Cuba, a lot of them to Louisiana.
And New Orleans.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Wait a minute New Orleans?
So you're trying to say that Haitian culture is deeply rooted in New Orleans as well?
Absolutely.
You have Haitians, especially Haitian people of color, right?
You have white folks fleeing the Haitian Revolution, but they're bringing in slave populations with them.
You also have free people of color coming over from Haiti.
And so by between 1791 and 1810, you get roughly 10,000 Haitians who migrate to the city of New Orleans.
The time the city of New Orleans population is between 8,000 and 10,000.
So they really bring a lot of what they had in Haiti to New Orleans.
How do Haitians use ritual to remember the past?
So ritual is tied to culture and politics.
The Haitians use ritual to remember the revolution.
They use it to remember the religion of their African ancestors and the way that contributes to the revolution.
And they use it to make statements about their current situation and the ways in which their ancestors and their past contributes to their current politics.
It could put you in such a state.
It puts me in such a state of gratitude because of what my ancestors have done for me and what they went through so that I can sit in this chair and talk and truly feel black girl free, but also a sense of pain, true pain.
And when I speak to you my own my heart aches with such truth.
In such history.
Haiti's national dish incorporates culinary traditions from West Africa with its Scotch bonnet peppers, France with its classic pot-au-feu and the Americas with its native squash.
And for Haitians, these ingredients draw on the spirit of revolution to create an opportunity to gather together and remember their shared history, no matter where they find themselves in the present.
Often today, one family will make enough soup to be dozens, knowing that not everyone can afford to make their own.
In that moment, Haitians have occasion to think of a victorious past and look towards a future of abundance.
All this talk of freedom and revolution is making me hungry.
Maggie Gomez has welcomed me into the kitchen to talk food, history and culture and how they come together in a bowl of soup joumou.
Hi!
Hey Maggie!
How are you?
I am so excited to meet you.
I'm so happy.
I am so excited to be in the presence of a vodou priestess.
Someone with elegance, who knows her history, her lineage and how to make soup joumou.
Yeah that you're gonna share!
Of course.
Why all the secrets I mean, it's looking beautiful.
The table, the smells makes me hungry just looking at it.
Yes.
So what is the importance of this soup to the culture?
This soup is very important to the culture, because in Haiti, yes.
Back in the 1800s, when when we all were slaves and as we were slave, we could only make the soup for the masters.
Only you can not drink from it.
This is too special to eat.
The nerve.
So now we make it for us.
And you and the community.
Everyone gets a piece of it, even if they don't have the money to make it.
Because it can be expensive to make right?
It's very expensive to make.
So what you do when you make a pot of soup and you have everybody come in or you get bored in your house to take a bowl of it for your neighbor and this neighbor, that neighbor, right neighbor, left neighbor, front neighbor.
You take a little bit of soup for them.
It's it's also bring it good luck.
It brings good luck?
It brings you a lot of good luck.
Okay.
We're going to wash the meat.
We're going to rinse the meat.
It has a little bit of lime and vinegar.
We have clover here.
I'm going to put a little bit of clover.
A little bit of clover.
Not much.
Okay.
This is a spice.
Our spice.
Need a bit of spice.
How did you learn how to prepare this?
Oh, through my grandmother.
My great grandmother.
My great grandmother taught me how to do it at the house everybody have to learn how to make all your own food in case of emergency.
Even like little children, little kids?
Even little children.
So how old were you when you learned how to make it?
About maybe five, six years old.
My grandmother will call you up in the kitchen and say, Watch what I'm doing.
So this is how everybody in my house learned how to cook.
Meat is ready.
Can I put it in?
Of course.
Yes.
Yes, yes.
Okay.
You got the meat.
We got a celery.
Celery could put it in.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yes.
Oh, okay.
The carrots.
Turnips.
We're putting the turnips.
We're going to put green peppers.
Green peppers.
Yellow peppers.
Our parsley.
You make a knot.
Seriously, you make a knot.
Why?
It's the way because you don't want it all over your soup.
You want it one spot of your soup.
So whenever you're ready, you can take it out.
Take this skin off.
You could put the whole onion in like this.
Put the water in.
Yes.
All right.
How important is this to pass this down for generations to come?
It's very important because everybody has to know their roots You have to know where you come from.
No matter where you live.
You got to know where you come from.
Don't forget.
The peppers.
Yes.
No cutting it up?
You put it in hole.
You put it in hole.
When you... when you start cooking, you could smash it up a little bit.
This is it.
And then we're going to put it to boil.
It's time.
It's time to bring the water and put it to boil.
Yeah.
So what is the next step?
The next step is the pumpkin.
Since we have the pumpkin boiled, we gonna mash the pumpkin, and then we're going to put potatoes in .
I can.
Can I?
Yes, yes, yes.
Thank you very much.
Yes, You could put up the pasta.
You want me to do it?
Yes, please.
Yes, please.
Yes.
It makes me think and wonder.
What does this mean to Haitians?
It means freedom.
It means independence.
When you're free.
You could finally make a bowl or a pot of soup joumou.
Sounds like a very special ritual.
Yes, it is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
4 hours later, we are finally ready to dig into this soup joumou.
It has been all day and I'm so excited.
Are you excited?
I mean, it's very exciting.
I wanted to test that, to see how my culture, how we cook, how delicious our foods are.
Please do the first plate honors.
Yes.
It smells so good and it's so beautiful.
It's so colorful.
And I, I just dip it in, right?
Dip it in, you don't need spoon.
That's it.
That's the way to eat it.
You good.
Mmmmm.
Alright now.
Tastes like freedom!
Freedom!
That's good.
Oh, my God.
Thank you so much, Maggie.
You're quite welcome.
Thank you so much.
I feel.... You're welcome.
So blessed and so lucky.
Ladies and gentlemen, soup joumou!
It's amazing how much shared history there is between Haitians and American cities like my hometown, New Orleans.
Both have drawn on African roots to create a tradition of spiritual resistance, and both have used food as a form of cultural expression, like the bubbling pot of gumbo.
I grew up eating soup joumou represents the history of black survival despite persistent hardship.
And for Haitian immigrants throughout the South, soup joumou also tastes like home.
Passport
Follow Us