Anse d’Hainault (Grand Anse)
Participants:
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman
#7 Rosemitha Noël, 42, None, Market woman
#8 Public:
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman
#10 Filisiara Filistin , 59, None, Market woman
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman
1- How important is the production of cocoa to you?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: You see here, the cocoa ripe on its tree. As soon as it is rek it will be ripe. On the same day we pick it, we break it, and set it up to be kive. The next day we open it. After 3 or 4 weeks it should be dry. It has to be ripe before picking it otherwise it is not good. You can put it in a container to be kive for at least two days then set it out to dry in the sun. It becomes beautiful and yellowish, which means it was well prepared. Now after 3 or 4 days in the sun, the cocoa can be conserved.
Rek: Nearly ripe
Kivet: When the cocoa is put into a sack for several days right after the seeds were removed from the pods in order to remove the grease from the seeds.
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi : Well, the importance of cocoa to us is, for example, you might not have the possibility and you need to send your kids to school. You prepared the cocoa and dried it for the moment, and later you can sell it to pay for your kids’ school. Cocoa is a prepared food. That is the importance it has for us. In the same way, your kids might be hungry but the cocoa is not picked. You might go to a market woman and say” I have some cocoa and my kids are hungry I need to feed them”. She will sell you food. Instead..muffle…muffle.. you have the cocoa. It has great importance to us because our kids are not left hungry and they get to go to school.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Cocoa is important for those who own it. If you don’t have it and you are only buying, and if you are only a zombie. Once you buy you have to resell it. You don’t own any cocoa, it’s important too. But if they don’t have it for you to buy, you will not find it to use for yourself.
2 Do you like working as a cocoa producer?
#8 Public:Yes
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: Yes, we love working as cocoa producers. It is what feeds us and is our source of life.
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi : Yes, we love working in cocoa production. It is like a cooked meal for us. It is very useful to us for sleeping, school, food, clothes and shoes for our kids. You need to have land in order for you to produce cocoa.
- How do you spend your days during the cocoa harvest?
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: During cocoa season we are always active. You know we are women. Actually I went all the way to Malala and I am already back. Malala is a place far away.
4 – Do you pay other people to help with the picking or you do all the work within the family?
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman: We do not pay other people because what we have is not enough to pay workers. Sometimes as women we would use a long stick to pick the cocoa from its tree, but has to be ripe first. When we finish picking, we carry it home in a washbasin or a bucket. But first we need to remove the cocoa from its pod. When we get home we would kive it. The next day, God willing, we set it out to dry. We weigh the cocoa after it is dried.
- Are your daily activities during cocoa season different from your mother’s?
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: When my mother was raising me, she raised me with the cocoa. At any time she would be selling cocoa and she made money. Now they take the cocoa from us for nothing.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: The price changed. It was more expensive in the past.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: The country was better. I was raised well by my mother. Now the country is tough. Schools are expensive. Food for the kids is expensive. We don’t have money to raise our kids. They are not raised well. They suffer more. There was more food and money in the past.
Selling cocoa does not answer your needs?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: No, and you need to have it. Now if you don’t have it you have some money and buy cocoa to resell you only make 2 pyes as bonus. It’s just enough to buy food for the kids. We don’t have cocoa trees. You need money to buy then sell it.
(Pyes: Another name for Haitian gourdes)
6- What do you find is the most difficult thing in the cocoa production?
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: I would not say there is anything too difficult in the production to us because if we don’t, cocoa life will be hard for us. The production is our pride because we know where we will get it to sell.
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman: What is most difficult for us is when we don’t have a plantation yet; when we are growing the cocoa. Before we prepared the cocoa for planting, if it does not rain we have to carry water for us to water the plants all day long.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: It’s difficult for us when it does not rain.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: The problem is water for us to water the plants. If you have buckets to carry water and you water the plants, they start growing in an instance. You set it out in the sun and water it.
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman: It will grow in an instant.
7- What is the easiest thing for you in the cocoa production?
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: For them to buy the cocoa from us and pay us well.
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: Only carrying it to sell it.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman:It is not far to carry it for selling. I don’t know about the others who are not from here, or those who live far, but for those of us living in town it is not hard to carry it to sell.
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: Drying is easy as long there is no rain.
8 – Besides cocoa, what other agriculture production are you involved in?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: We plant corn and rice. If the harvest is good when we harvest, we share with our children. When we have a good spring.
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman : We don’t plant all the time, there is a special time for that.
9- Does cocoa have a specific date to start producing fruit?
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: We always have cocoa. It might not be same quantity all the time.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: Sometimes you have more. Sometimes you have less. Even if it is not a lot you always get some.
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman: For example, right now it’s August. We have a lot It has a harvest time. In September and October we have a lot of cocoa. In November and December the quantity goes down.
10 Who in the family sells cocoa the most?
#8 Public:The women
#7 Rosemitha Noël, 42, None, Market woman: The women do that. Not all men will take the chance to pick cocoa. The women like picking cocoa more than the men. They carry it to market for selling.
11- Can you give an explanation of the cocoa process?
#10 Filisiara Filistin , 59, None, Market woman: We hoe the land first, then water it.
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: You have the cocoa. You hoe the farm and if anything tries to cover the cocoa, you simply remove it.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: After working the land we plant banana on the land. You break the pods of the cocoa while it is green and take out the seeds. You plant the cocoa seeds behind each banana tree and add some manure to it. You mow the land when it’s needed and water the plants. Your cocoa trees will grow and start producing; you will be picking your cocoa soon.
12 – Is anyone here in a cooperative?
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: We heard about them, but none of us are involved.
What have you heard about cooperatives?
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: Cooperatives are with people who are involved in cocoa; with people who are planting. Because there are some trees-I heard about people only receiving them from the cooperatives. They plant those trees and if they have time they water the plants. The young ladies water the plants every day and work in the fields then go to meetings in the cooperative.
13 – Is there a cooperative in this area?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Yes but we are not involved. ….Why? We can, For example, other places have it, but here we don’t have any.
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman: For example, you come here and meet with us. But them, if they don’t invite us we cannot go.
Do you know the advantages you can have in the cooperative?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: If we had it we would know but we don’t have it.
#8 Public: We don’t have one; we don’t know.
14-Are you interested in joining a cooperative?
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman: They haven’t invited us. Somebody there would have to send us an invitation. … There would have to be a leader. … In this area, they would have to invite us for us to do it. But it’s something that interests us.
15 – What do you think a cooperative could do for you?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: For cocoa to bring a better price, for us to rise up to get a better price for our cocoa, for our children to have a future, for us to have prosperity, for us to have one too; that’s what we need from a cooperative.
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: And a lot of them will buy. If you have one you aren’t going to buy.
That means if a cooperative comes you will participate?
#8 Public: Yes
16 – When you produce cocoa who do you sell it to?
#8 Public:We sell to speculators, anybody.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: We sell it to speculators in Anse d’Hainault, people who buy cocoa. We dry our cocoa. We make it dry and then we sell it.
17-Does cocoa have one price, that is, just one price?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: No you sell the “pot”, just like the marmite.
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: A “pot” of cocoa sells for 12 gourdes, which means the marmite sells for 18 Haitian dollars, 20 dollars when you buy it on the ground. But when you go weigh it on the scale they weigh it at 100 gourdes
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: You make four (Haitian) dollars on it.
18 –What work in cocoa production is there that men don’t do?
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: Men don’t plant yams. In cocoa work they hoe, they cut dead branches so it can thrive, but if you leave it alone, it’s not good, and women can’t do it.
19 –What do women do that men don’t?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Women harvest cocoa and dry it. You don’t dry it on the ground, you dry it if you have a cement pad. Then you measure it and go sell it.
20-Do you ever cut down cocoa trees?
#8 Public: No
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman: No. They clean them up. They get rid of the sick branches’’
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: If the cocoa is not cared for it won’t produce. For a sickly cocoa tree, its branches need to be trimmed, but we never cut down a cocoa tree unless it’s dead.
21-The cocoa you are growing now, is it cocoa that was already there or did you plant it?
#8 Public: No, we plant little trees. When you find others, ones that were already there on your grandparents’ land, if you acquire a plantation you need to cultivate it. Now you need to plant.
22-How long does it take for a cocoa tree to produce?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: 3 to 4 years
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: It depends on the land. You can plant a cocoa tree and it doesn’t take 1 year to produce, but if the land isn’t good it can grow for 3 or 4 years and still not produce.
23- What are the days like for men during the cocoa season? What do they do?
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: In the cocoa season, men work pruning and trimming the cocoa trees. They pick it and put it on the ground for women to set it out to dry. They go to work after that, and you might do something or carry something for him; go meet him. We carry the cocoa, break it, lay it out to be kive, and then dry it.
24-Who divides up the jobs, men or women?
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: We both do. The man can say “ wife, let’s do this”. The wife says, “lets do this instead”. We know school is about to be open and we have to buy materials for school. We both decide.
25-Who decides when the cocoa is ready to be picked?
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: Everybody lives off cocoa. Men aren’t really as on top of the cocoa. It’s women who are always involved in cocoa. We are the ones who are always on it, looking to see if we have 2 or 3 pods that are ripe.
26-When do you know cocoa is ready to be harvested?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: When it’s ripe. When it’s ripe it’s yellow, it’s pink.
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: When it’s not ripe yet it’s blue, it’s green.
26 –Do children participate in cocoa production?
#8 Public: They pick. They pick it to make a little money. Children pick cocoa so they can make some pocket money because when the parents don’t go, the kids go. They pick a little cocoa when they see it’s ripe.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Children don’t help with cocoa production, with the cutting and trimming. They might help us pick. When we’re harvesting they help us.
27-How do you consume cocoa, what do you make with cocoa to drink, to eat?
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman: When the cocoa is dry, we make chocolate with it. We grill it. When it’s done grilling you grind it, you mash it with a pestle, you soften it, you make into balls, and you put it into banana leaves.
28-Is chocolate (to drink) the only thing you make with cocoa?
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman: Well, chocolate (to drink) is the only thing I make with it myself…’’
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: We know they can make hair dressing with it and another things, but we don’t do it. We only make hot chocolate and candy. We know they make liqueur with it. If it weren’t something people valued they wouldn’t buy it.
29 –What medicines do people make with cocoa?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: With cocoa, if you have a cold you can boil the bud. I have seen people take it and wash their head. We take some little ones and we slice them and wash the head with it.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: And sometimes people can be so short on vegetables, they watch the little ones (laughter). We take three or four and make a vegetable dish. I’m not sorry to say that we eat it. We boil it, and it’s slippery like okra.
#7 Rosemitha Noël, 42, None, Market woman: The cocoa’s skin is a powerful medicine. If you have a sick person you burn it and put it on the sick person. … I didn’t know that … That’s something from long ago, not now … That is something I thought was for if you have an animal with a cut.
30 –Would you want the same thing for your daughters as for your sons?
#8 Public: Yes
#7 Rosemitha Noël, 42, None, Market woman: If you don’t have means, if one is ahead of the other and I don’t have the means, I push the one that’s ahead, whether it’s a girl or a boy. I push the one that’s ahead, and then that one can help the younger one. I push the one that’s in front, and halt the one that’s not.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Me, I wouldn’t want one to break away from the other. I have to be happy for the two of them to be as one.
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: I would not one to be more successful than the other. I want them both to be equal.
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: Both of them have to want to be successful. If you have a daughter, nowadays the girls are not making wise decisions. You can put both of them in school. The younger one wants to learn and leave the girl behind because she only cares about being beautiful or goes and gets pregnant. I will stop her and push the other one.
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: Hummmmm, Jesus!!
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi :But it’s not the parent who stopped her.
31-If you have money are you the ones who decides how to spend it?
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: It depends on how much money you have in your hands. If it’s enough for what you have to do and you have the same idea as your husband, you get along. Before you do what you have to do, you call your husband. You take the path on the right. He says, “I don’t want you to go right, go left.” Or if he tells you what path to take, he is with you, but you must follow.
What else do you spend your money on besides food?
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman: We spend money on our children. For example your kids might want to have some pretty clothes, participate in a youth group, and school days dress up. Sometimes your husband does not have the means to take the kids shopping. You can do that. You want to look good yourself and don’t have to wait on your husband to give you money for that. You can buy nice things for your house. Yes, we buy animals: chicken, pigs, and goats.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: Depends on the amount you have.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: It depends on the amount of money you have.
What about the big expenses? Who decides on them?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: For small expenses we don’t tell our husbands. He does not need to know about everything…Laughing……But for big expenses he is involved. For health care and education both of us make the decision. For example, he might want to send the kids to public school this year because he wants to invest the money on the farm, and I can say, “if we take them out they will need new uniforms, let’s leave them where they are.”
32- Do you take a loan on the cocoa before it is ripe ?
#2 Rochelin Dilien , Zombi: You can’t just borrow money on the cocoa because you see there is cocoa on the tree. You wait until the fruit is ripe. For myself, I already know that the cocoa is mine. If I can see I will make one or two mamit of cocoa, I will not stay starving if I am hungry. I will go to someone and say “lend me 50 gourdes. I will go pick some cocoa. When it is dry I will sell it and pay you back.” But if the cocoa is green you can’t just go borrow money on it.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: If you cannot buy cocoa during harvest, you can go to someone and borrow 1000 gourdes. After selling the cocoa you pay them back and keep the extra you made.
33 – Can cocoa be sold like mango, meaning selling the whole harvest at once?
#8 Public: No, only if you sell the land.
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: If you have a problem paying for school for children, you can rent the land with all the cocoa on it. If you rent it for 2500 gourdes, when the cocoa is good all of the harvest is for that person. You will not get any extra money and the person doesn’t owe you anything extra. Even if you are hungry you cannot touch that cocoa..Laughing.
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: You rent the land to someone.
Are there women as leaders in the community?
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: In Anse d’Hainault there is a woman who is senator and some are teachers. None of us here are in any position, but there are women who are active in the community.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Well, what do we do? If we have kids at a school where the principal is a woman and the teacher is female and we have some problem and cannot pay school, we would ask them if they can wait for 2 or 3 days to pay and not send the kids home.
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Between us here, we are not in those levels. We are not doing anything because they don’t give us anything. No one is looking for anything for us. There are several women in church but none of them are leaders.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: There are women who are leaders in some associations, but they are not from Anse D’Hainault.
34 – Is there an organization for women in the community? Are you involved in it?
#8 Public: No. We don’t have anything here.
In my opinion, the women in this area don’t have a leader. We don’t have any help. God is our only help.
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman: We could make the decision to do something, but we don’t have a leader. We need someone who will look out for us and help us. We will take care of that person. Sometimes we have great ideas and we don’t where to go. If we have a leader, that person will lead and we will follow.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: For example if you are going out, you don’t know where to go.
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman: There is a group in Nan Bouchi. A leader came and invited them to a meeting. Now all the women over there are involved.
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: But we don’t have anyone here.
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: Can’t we just create a group by ourselves ?
#6 Louisaint Lucia , 50, None, Market woman: We can create one, but we need a leader who will look out for us.
35- Do you think men and women have the same rights in the community?
#5 Rosena Simond , 20 , 4e AF, Market woman: I think women have their rights and men have theirs. I think there is work a man can do but a woman can’t. The men work with machetes all day long, but we women cannot. The men give the women food. As women we help. Sometimes the man can go to a collective-labor group for the whole day and leave nothing for the woman. Laughing…
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: But as a woman you have to hustle to make sure there is something waiting for him when he gets home.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: You need to find some cocoa even if it is green to sell in order to cook food for the kids and leave him some. He is expecting to have food ready for him when he gets home and doesn’t need to know what you’ve done to get food…Laughing.
36- Do you think a woman can run for office in this area?
#8 Public: No, we don’t have these things around here.
Isn’t this area part of Anse D’Hainault?
Yes, we are. Only Rose Laure for deputy.
37- Who do you sell cocoa to?
#1 Rosanie Jean Jacques , 60, None, Market woman: We sell to the speculators; they are the people with scales. We dry the cocoa and leave our house and carry the cocoa to him. If we don’t have cocoa we go to people’s houses with cocoa and buy by small cans and sell it to speculators. The speculators buy the cocoa, put it in sacks, and send it to Port au Prince. He sends the cocoa to Port au Prince by boat. We who are buying cocoa by buckets or small cans, they call us zombies. We get the name zombie because it might be 4 or 5 in the morning or 4 in the evening and we are still out buying cocoa.
How do you buy cocoa as a zombie?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: We buy the amount we can find. We buy everywhere we go.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: We find two small cans from this person, or three, four from another. We take everything until we have an amount that we can carry on our head. Cocoa is very heavy when it is wet.
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman: We buy it green and after it is taken from the pods also.
#10 Filisiara Filistin , 59, None, Market woman: We always buy dry cocoa but the price is different.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: Dried cocoa is more expensive. If you pay 10 gourdes when it is dry, you will pay 8 gourdes when it is wet. 15 gourdes dry, 10 gourdes wet. 20 gourdes dry, 15 gourdes wet. Prices differ depending on the time of the year.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: If you buy it wet , you would dry it.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: When the cocoa is wet, it is not an advantage for the zombie. You might pay 15 gourdes for a small can of wet cocoa and after it is dry, you will be selling it for 25 gourdes per pound to speculators.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: Speculators pay 25 gourdes per pound, and a pound is two small cans. Speculators do not buy the cocoa when it is wet. For us zombies it is better for us to buy the cocoa dried instead of wet.
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman: The speculators will not buy cocoa from us if the cocoa is wet. When you buy dried cocoa, you can go sell it right away. When you buy it wet, you have to dry it before selling it. It is not to our advantage. You do it because you have kids to take care of.
39- Besides cocoa, what other agriculture products do you sell?
#9 Catherine Leger, 50, None, Market woman: Yes, we sell cocoa, bananas, and breadfruit. Whatever you have you can go sell. There is more money in cocoa. When you take the breadfruit to the market you might make 10 gourdes..Laughter…Sometimes people don’t even look at them or you might not sell it at all. Cocoa on the other hand, as soon as you arrive there will be a person to weigh it, and you will sell it.
#3 Jona Lauror , 31, 3e AF, Market woman: People with a small plantation have cocoa. They pick it, dry it, and sell it. A zombie doesn’t have a plantation. They buy the cocoa and sell it to speculators.
#4 Rosemirtha Ardouin , 42, None, Market woman: Yes, we buy it from them. We don’t have a plantation. We only buy it and dry it to sell to speculators.
#11 Salomond Paulette, 52, None, Market woman: Sometimes the people with a plantation won’t sell you cocoa. They will dry it and take it to town. Only those who want to sell to you will sell.
#12 Camiler Louisia, 30, 2e AF Market woman: They know if you buy a mamit (large can) from them you need to try to make 10 gourdes from it. Well, some said they can make the extra 10 gourdes themselves…. Laughing.
