The Creole pig means more than food in Haiti. The Kreyol kochon is one of the country’s most important historical icons: its sacrifice was a central part of the spiritual ceremony that started the Haitian Revolution in 1791.
After Haiti won its independence, the Creole pig became the linchpin not just of Haitian agriculture but of the autonomy if not the power of Haitian rural society.
But in the 20th century, Haiti’s corrupt elites — with a big assist from the United States — conspired to eradicate the Creole pig. And in the process, they brought the collapse of the Haitian countryside — and the country itself, in ways we’re seeing today. That compelling link between the demise of the Creole pig and the crisis of Haiti is the subject of a new documentary produced by WLRN called The Creole Pig: Haiti’s Great Loss, which will premiere on air on WLRN-TV Thursday, beginning at 9 p.m.
READ MORE: Uncovering the Forgotten Story of the Creole Pig
In an interview Friday on WLRN’s South Florida Roundup, the Miami-based director and co-producer of the documentary Dudley Alexis went over the forgotten story of the Creole pig and why it meant more than just a source of nourishment for Haiti’s rural socio-economic system known as Lakou.
The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
PADGETT: Tell us then why the Creole pig went on to play such a central economic role in the formation of the Haitian republic — especially in the rural society.
ALEXIS: What's important to understand about pig in Haiti, is that everything the farmer produces, anything that is the surplus or waste, they feed to the pig. And because of that, the pig allowed them to have anything that they had, to be transformed into capital. They can just grab that, take it to the market and sell it. [It also] has such an interesting relationship with land as it makes it much easier for farmers to grow. That's the difference between having cows and goats. For them, you need a big grazing area. For pigs, you do not need that. You just need a little small area and you grow enough food. You can feed the pigs and make [it], have a much higher yield.
But then, in the 20th century Haiti’s urban elite started this effort to undermine the Lakou because they think it’s an unproductive economic system, which I guess was code for: an economic system that wasn’t benefiting them enough, right? What happened, especially in terms of how this affected the Creole pig?
Since the revolution, It's been a struggle back and forth between the Lakou and the elite of Haiti. Because the Lakou is so independent from the states. And for you to control Haiti, you need to control the Lakou, and it became extremely difficult. At the end of the Haitian revolution, you end up having — and that's one of the things that's extremely unique to Haiti — is most of the land is not controlled by the elites. Instead, in Haiti most of the land and the highest producing lands are controlled by farmers.
"Everything the farmer produces, anything that is the surplus or waste, they feed to the pig. And because of that, the pig allowed them to have anything that they had, to be transformed into capital."Dudley Alexis
Then comes the Duvalier dictatorship in 1957. Its first ruler, Papa Doc Duvalier, seems to understand the importance of the Creole pig to the Haitian population. But his son, Baby Doc Duvalier, then falls under the sway of those elites in the 1970s who want to do away with the Lakou system and the Creole pig. And they’re helped by a swine sickness that begins sweeping the world, right? Tell us about that.
The difference between the two Duvaliers is that the son and the father were different from each other. The father had a really good connection with the rural side, but the son did not. So, when the son came to power, that connection wasn't there to allow him to really understand how to deal with Haitian farmers.
The arrival of the African swine flu also means the arrival of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — the USDA — and your documentary does an especially powerful job of recounting how the U.S. then sort of completes the eradication of the Creole pig in the Haitian countryside. How did that happen?
The African swine fever, ASF, was going around the world. And right around that time, pig production was becoming extremely industrialized. The U.S. had a fear of [pigs] being contaminated from the African swine fever in Haiti. It went to Europe, to France and Spain. And from Spain, it made it to Brazil and went to the Dominican Republic. And from there, it made it to Haiti. Out of fear, the U.S. came in and actually pressured Duvalier to eradicate the Creole pig. So, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration comes in with this program to pay farmers to have their pigs slaughtered. And the thing is a lot of the farmers did not want to get their pigs slaughtered. There was retaliation, imprisonment and people were getting beaten up because of the Creole pig.
And the eradication of the Creole pig then results in the implosion of Haitian agriculture — and also in the eradication of a solid, effective system that not only sustained rural Haitians economically but gave them a measure of dignity socially and politically. The pig wasn’t just food; the pig was power. How then did the removal of that power from the life of the ordinary Haitian begin to result in the unraveling of Haitian society itself – starting with the migration of rural Haitians to cities like Port-au-Prince?
In Haiti, you have that disconnect between the countryside and the people that live in the city: the moun andeyo, or outsiders, and the urban centers. The fact that Duvalier allowed that, caused many movements to grow in Haiti that came from the rural side and some of them that also end up being in some of the impoverished parts of some of the cities.
The backlash helped get Duvalier thrown out of power, right?
Yeah, because that was an actual crash of the Haitian economy.
You can listen to the full conversation above or wherever you get your podcasts by searching: The South Florida Roundup.
