The term “Sou-sou” is derived from the Yoruba term esusu, and it’s sort of like a group savings plan.
This is how the practice works: a group pools their money together, and a treasurer collects the money from the members and gives the money to ONE different member on a predetermined schedule.
Each person can receive their lump sum every few weeks to every few years in varying amounts - from the hundreds to the thousands - until each person gets theirs. Then it starts over with the first person.
Sou-sous are good for large payments like homes, businesses, and cars, and have been integral in sustaining immigrant African communities.
Sou-sous ONLY work when members have trust. So how do you keep people accountable?
Well, sou-sous are usually made of family members who have a strong interest in each other’s success. And non-familial members of a sou-sou can be church members, close friends, or co-workers who already share an established trust.
Sou-sou is practiced in Africa and the Caribbean, including Jamaica and Trinidad, and there’s an account of it being practice in 1910 Barbados in The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba People by E. A. Ajisafe Moore:
“Little associations called ‘Asu’ are formed of one or two dozen people who agree to contribute weekly a small sum toward a common fund. Every month the amount pooled is handed to a member, in order of seniority of admission, and makes a little nest-egg for investment or relief.
Cooperative economics like sou-sous is just one way we can strengthen our communities, and with trust, honor, and the communal strength of our churches and organizations, we should give them a try.