Ardain Isma
CSMS Magazine Staff Writer
On New Year’s Day, in Haitian homes across the world, a familiar aroma rises from the kitchen—rich, earthy, comforting. It is the scent of soup joumou, a humble yet majestic dish that carries within it the weight of history and the promise of renewal.
During the colonial era in Saint-Domingue, soup joumou—made from giraumon squash—was reserved exclusively for enslavers. Enslaved Africans, who cultivated the squash and prepared the meals, were forbidden from tasting it. The soup became a symbol of exclusion and humiliation. But on January 1, 1804, when Haiti declared its independence and became the world’s first Black republic born of a successful slave revolution, that prohibition ended forever.
On that first day of freedom, Haitians cooked and shared soup joumou as an act of defiance, dignity, and triumph. Each spoonful declared: we are free. Over two centuries later, the tradition endures. The soup—now enriched with beef, root vegetables, pasta, herbs, and patience—is more than nourishment. It is memory made edible. It is history served hot.
Preparing soup joumou is an act of transmission. Elders teach the recipe to the young not merely to preserve a dish, but to preserve consciousness. It reminds us that freedom was hard-won, that dignity is non-negotiable, and that survival itself can be a form of resistance.
As we welcome the New Year, soup joumou invites reflection as much as celebration. It asks us to honor the past, to protect our hard-earned liberties, and to face the future with courage and solidarity.
On behalf of CSMS Magazine, we wish our readers a happy, healthy, and purposeful New Year. May 2026 be a year of resilience, clarity, justice, and shared humanity—and may we continue, together, to break bread not in silence, but in freedom.
Bon ane. Bonne année. Happy New Year.
Note: Ardain Isma is a university professor, novelist, essayist, and scholar. He serves as Chief Editor of CSMS Magazine and leads Village Care Publishing, an indie press dedicated to multicultural and social-justice-oriented literature. His works include Midnight at Noon, Bittersweet Memories of Last Spring, Last Spring was Bittersweet and The Cry of a Lone Bird – his latest novel which explores resilience, love, and the enduring quest for human dignity.Â
