Key Takeaways
- On the One54 Africa podcast, Wyclef Jean recalls telling Lauryn Hill he survived childhood poverty in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti by eating mud pies, which she initially thought he was exaggerating or "capping" about until she later saw TikTok videos confirming the practice.
- Wyclef explains that the clay "bonbon tè" mud cookies he ate as a kid gave him stomach worms and could have killed him, underscoring how Haitian children facing extreme hunger resort to these toxic, low-nutrition pies made from clay, salt, and butter.
Wyclef Jean once opened up to Lauryn Hill about eating mud pies while living in Haiti as a child — although, apparently she didn’t believe him.
The Fugees co-founder appeared on the Wednesday (August 5) episode of One54 Africa, where he recalled growing up in extreme poverty in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. The three-time Grammy winner resided in his hometown before relocating to Brooklyn, and later New Jersey, with his family when he was in his pre-teens. While in Haiti as a child, Jean occasionally consumed mud pies or mud cookies, a survival food locally known as "bonbon tè."
"I was with the sis. And we was having a conversation and she was like, 'Yo, man. Like, everything you say since we've been little, bro, you exaggerate so much,'" Jean recalled Hill telling him around the 38-minute mark of the video below. "I really thought it was exaggeration when you told me you you ate mud pies. And she was like, 'Yo, I was looking at TikTok. Mud pies is a real thing.' I said, 'I told you.' They thought I was capping."
Elsewhere in the interview, the "911" artist said that he once developed stomach worms from the mud pies.
Made from clay, salt, and butter, mud pies have historically been consumed by impoverished Haitian communities facing severe hunger. While containing calcium, the pies have little nutritional value due to toxic ingredients and can cause malnutrition, as documented by World Focus. Due to being cooked and dried in dangerous conditions, the pies can lead to illnesses like parasites.
In Jean’s 2012 memoir Purpose: An Immigrant's Story, the musician wrote: "When there was no food we ate clusters of the red dirt that made up the floor of our hut," per The Ledger.
