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The People of Haiti had to go through many hardships throughout their country’s turbulent history, but over the years they have proven their strength and hardiness. For many of the Haitians, especially the poor, pigs have always played an important role in the peoples’ sustenance and livelihood.
Traditionally, the Creole pig, or Cochon Creole, was a staple of the peasant economy. Best described as a small, dark-skinned, frugal and undemanding breed, the Cochon adapted over the centuries to the hard conditions in Haiti.
The economic stability the pig provided to its owners, lead to its nickname, the ‘Piggy Bank’- almost every peasant family owned such a Piggy Bank. This situation persisted until the early 1980’s, when a swine-fever reached Haiti‘s shores.
In a much-criticised step, a coalition led by the American Agency for International Development (USAID), over-hastily decided to eradicate the Creole pig in order to prevent the swine fever from spreading, thereby depriving many farmers of one of their most pivotal means of subsistence.
American hogs were brought as a replacement for the Creole pig, but they were ill-suited to the conditions that the traditional Cochon had thrived in. The farmers soon realised that these American Hogs had very expensive needs, oftentimes eating better than the people! Many families thus gave up pig breeding.
In 1994 a national pig repopulation program began. With the help of local farmers organisations, the program succeeded in breeding a mixed-race pig that was better suited to the conditions in Haiti, even if not as undemanding and hardy as the traditional Creole pig. The success of the program made it possible to reintroduce pigs on a large scale within Haiti’s peasant agriculture.
Today, pigs are once-again an important means of subsistence to farmers, as well as impoverished city dwellers.