get these nets
Veteran
The complex story of the Creole pig's significance to Haiti - and to its downfall
02/10/2025
Haitian farmers bring their Creole pigs for evaluation and extermination in a field in Haiti, in 1982. The WLRN film The Creole Pig tells the forgotten story of the Creole pig in Haiti and why it meant more than just a source of nourishment for the country's rural socio-economic system known as Lakou.
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.
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
