Haitian Independence Day
Le jou Independent Ayisyen ekri by Intelligent_One
January 1st is more then just a day for Haitians and Haitian-Americans. It marks the day in which Haitian leaders such as Toussaint L'Overture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines freed our country thus making us the first liberated black nation and the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere.
We our 201 years old.
On this day we eat
Soup Joumou.
What is
Soup Joumou you ask? Good question... :)
Thirteen long years, all told through torched cities, slit throats, scorched earth, attacks, betrayals, mass executions, sieges, torture, and despair.
Dessalines' ultimate winning strategy:
koupe tèt, boule kay, cut off the heads, burn down.
About 300,000 Haitians died and 50,000 French--and in the end, the French were defeated. General Rochambeau was given
dix jou (10 days) to pack up his army and ship home. When the last French ship had cleared Le Cap, Dessalines sent word to Gérin at Les Cayes: "There is no more doubt, mon cher général, the country is ours, and the famous who-shall-have-it is settled." In Gonaïves, he sat down with his generals "to ratify in ink what they had written in blood."
People started gathering at dawn at Gonaïves' Place d'Armes (now known as The City of Independence). Dessalines mounted the Autel de la Patrie to speak. He recited the cruelties of their enslavement in Kreyol, so everyone could understand him, and he declared that Haitians would forever live free and die free.
"Vive independence nou!" (Long live independence!) he shouted at the end, having no idea what a difficult life Haitians would lead in the future. Cannons were fired; church bells, rung; people cheered; and, kettles of soup joumou perfumed the air, ready to be eaten amongst our brothers and sisters.
What better way to celebrate than with the very soup they had been forbidden as slaves to eat? Ahhh, soup made from
joumou, the delicious and aromatic pumpkin, so different from their usual daily allotment of precisely one ounce of salted meat or fish.
This soup has become the touchstone of Haiti's fervent wish for peace and freedom--it's a symbol of communion and brotherhood. A beacon that shines through today's dark days of poverty and continuing political strife. One thing is sure, on January 1, Haitians around the world make it and eat it and share it precisely to remember the past and to hope for the future.
Some say the soup is a good luck charm for the new year. Others say, no, it's really to cleanse and purify the body for the new year. Others say it honors the Vodou god Papa Loko, keeper of African spiritual traditions, and that it "lifts up one's soul."
In Kreyol, the soup contains the following:
joumou, kawot, seleri, zanyon, nave, pomdete, malanga, and shou. The soup is spiced with
piman bouk, lay, and sitwon.
"By overthrowing me, you have succeeded in cutting down the tree of Liberty of the blacks in Santo Domingo. But have failed to destroy the roots that are deep and strong. And the tree will grow again."
--Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Although politics back in Haiti may weigh heavily on my mind and that of other Haitians living abroad, the value of Independence Day is no way diminished. Also I would like to add that my ommisson of certain historical events that took place until 1804 is on purpose.
Have a GREAT New Year!
Happy Independence Day Ayiti Cherie!
Linear Mode
