Building the Cultural Hunger Concept from the Haitian Perspective

It is believed that Haitians have been living with hunger since before the country’s independence in January 1804. Since then, the Haitian leaders, the international community, and society have been searching for a solution for hunger. This study aims to theoretically develop the Cultural Hunger concept and understand the elements that determine its existence. This article aims to discuss the main elementary categories and structural topics that build the idea of Cultural Hunger, through a systematic conceptual review research with emphasis on the launch of new theoretical, methodological, and conceptual proposals. The methodological process was conceived in three stages: exploratory research, expanded research of the topic and complementary research, aiming to incorporate new theoretical contributions and heuristic questions in the elaboration of the concept. By selecting authors who critically debate Haitian development and its calamities, such as Arturo Escobar, Jacques Cauna, Pierre Daix, Demesvar Delorme, Léon-François Hoffmann, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean Price-Mars; Sundhya Pahuja, among others, we articulate 16 elements that together constitute the Cultural Hunger concept. The study concludes that Haitian hunger is a symbolic and cultural phenomenon rather than material deprivation, departing from traditional perspectives. This innovation introduces a 16-element framework analyzing hunger through a dual movement: “outside-in” colonial impacts and “inside-out” social normalization. By identifying “collective anesthesia” as a result of historical traumas and structural failures, the research provides a heuristic foundation for social transformation and decolonial re-education, shifting the focus from emergency aid to a systemic change in political and social mentalities.