The Creole Pig was a breed of pig indigenous to the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Pigs, also called hogs or' swine', are Ungulates which have been domesticated as sources of food leather and similar products since ancient times Haiti ( English: ˈheɪ·tiː or haɪ·ˈjiː·tiː French Haïti a·i·ti Haitian Creole: Creole pigs were well adapted to the rugged terrain and sparse vegetation of Haiti. The pig’s resilience allowed Haitian peasants to raise these pigs with little resources. The peasants characterized their pigs as never getting sick. A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground
Creole pigs served as a type of savings account for the Haitian peasant: They were sold or slaughtered to pay for marriages, medical emergencies, schooling, seeds for crops, or a vodou ceremony. Savings accounts are accounts maintained by retail Financial institutions that pay Interest but can not be used directly as Money (by for example NOTICE TO WOULD-BE ROMEOS ************** A school (from Greek σχολεῖον - scholeion) is an Institution designed to allow and encourage Students (or "pupils" A seed (in some plants referred to as a kernel) is a small embryonic Plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat usually with some stored vodoo, vodun, or vodoun may refer to any of West African vodun, a west African religion Haitian vodou, mostly derived The resillience and boisterous nature of the pigs, as well as their incorporation into vodou folklore and the oral history of the Haitian revolution, made them a symbol for the independence and personality of the Haitian people. Oral history can be defined as the recording preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker The Revolution (1791–1804 was the most successful of African Slave rebellions in the Western Hemisphere
Creole pigs were well adapted to local conditions, such as available feed and conditions needed for their management as livestock and were popular with the Haitian peasant farmers. Livestock is the term used to refer (singularly or plurally to a Domesticated Animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce such as Food However, they were almost all killed off in the 1970s and 1980s, ostensibly in order to prevent the spread of African swine fever virus, which had spread from Spain to the Dominican Republic and then to Haiti via the Artibonite River. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. African swine fever virus (ASFV is the causative agent of African swine fever Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Dominican Republic ( Spanish: República Dominicana;) is a nation located in the Caribbean region and shares the island of Hispaniola with The Artibonite River is a 320 km long river in Haiti (estuary located at about) According to the United States, by 1982 African swine fever had infected almost one-third of Haiti's creole pig population. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Concerned about the spread of the disease into the US and its potential effects on agriculture, the US put political pressure on the Haitian government to slaughter all the pigs in their country. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture
This reasoning was subsequently questioned by the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, as well as numerous academic reports, including a report published in a 1990 edition of "Stretch"[1]. Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born July 15 1953 is a former Roman Catholic Priest who was President of Haiti in 1991 again from 1994 to 1996 and then The eradication of the creole pig had gone further to impoverish the already struggling peasants. It forced many children to quit school. Small farmers were forced to mortgage their land. A mortgage is the pledging of a property to a Lender as a security for a Mortgage loan. Many Haitians cut down trees for cash income from charcoal. Charcoal' is the blackish residue consisting of impure Carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from Animal and Vegetation This contributed to the desertification of the Haitian landscape, already begun by overpopulation. Desertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting primarily from human activities and influenced by climatic variations
In the Haitian peasant community, the government's eradication and repopulation program was highly criticized. The peasants protested that they were not fairly compensated for their pigs and that the breed of pigs imported from the United States to replace the hardy creole pigs was unsuitable for the Haitian environment and economy.
The new breed of pigs imported from the US, common to large farms in the American Midwest, was characterized as "better" than the creole pig. Unfortunately, they required clean drinking water which is unavailable to 80% of the Haitian population, imported feed (costing $90 a year when the per capita income was about $130), vaccination, and special roofed pigpens. Per capita income means how much each individual receives in monetary terms of the yearly income generated in the country Vaccination is the administration of Antigenic material (the Vaccine) to produce immunity to a disease There is controversy over whether the importation of these pigs was encouraged by US agribusiness, as the raising of these pigs was so heavily dependent on imported products. In Agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various Businesses involved in Food production including Farming, Seed Haitian peasants quickly named the pigs "prince à quatre pieds," (four-footed princes). The repopulation program was a complete failure.
In recent years, Haitian and French agronomists have bred a new variety of pig with the same beneficial qualities as Haiti's Creole pig. An effort to repopulate Haiti with these pigs is underway[1].
References
External links
- 1990 report in "Stretch", on the creole pigs
- The story of the "peasant's piggy bank" — video narrated by Edwidge Danticat in RealAudio format. Edwidge Danticat (pronounced Dahn-tee- kah; born January 19, 1969) is a Haitian-born American author RealAudio is a proprietary Audio format developed by RealNetworks.
- A Pig's Tale — a video by Anne Parisio and Leah Gordon in RealAudio format. RealAudio is a proprietary Audio format developed by RealNetworks.
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