Black Joy Through Food: New Year’s Day Soup Joumou
Black Joy Through Food is a Sweet July series in collaboration with Black Women Photographers. This photo essay is shot by Mhandy Gerard, co-written by Gerard and Taina Nixon and featuring Dana Vincent—three of 24 first cousins who grew up in a tight-knit Haitian family.
On January 1, 1804, Haiti became the first Black republic to defeat their slaveholders and gain their independence. On that day and every January 1 since, Haitians at home and abroad have been celebrating the monumental feat by preparing and enjoying soup joumou, a rich and nutrient-filled pumpkin soup! Oral history states the delicacy was previously forbidden to the people of Haiti by those who enslaved them, so even today, eating it feels like a celebration of revolution. Here’s hoping you’re filled with the same sense of pride and joy as you prepare and enjoy it!
