Haiti’s small, black, Creole pigs were at the heart of the
peasant economy. An extremely hearty breed, well adapted to
Haiti’s climate and conditions, they ate readily-available waste
products, and could survive for three days without food. Eighty
to 85% of rural households raised pigs; they played a key role
in maintaining the fertility of the soil and constituted the
primary savings bank of the peasant population. Traditionally a
pig was sold to pay for emergencies and special occasions
(funerals, marriages, baptisms, illnesses and, critically, to
pay school fees and buy books for the children when school
opened…) In 1982 international agencies assured Haiti’s peasants
their pigs were sick and had to be killed (so that the illness
would not spread to countries to the North). Promises were made
that better pigs would replace sick pigs. With an efficiency not
since seen among development projects, all of the Creole pigs
were killed over a period of thirteen months. Two years later
the new, better pigs came fr