Madan Sara - Haiti Observer Blog

Ornithologists study birds; but in the case of Haiti's most celebrated bird, the Madan Sara, a science of a different kind is needed. It has long been the view of anthropologists that the women who take their name from the birds purported to be quite boisterous in their noise-filled lives are critically involved in the Haitian system of marketing.

The statistics are glaring; 70% of the workers in the commercial sector and assembly industries are women. In the agricultural sector they're just shy of equaling men at 49%. As the responsible party in most households for the wellbeing and education of the children, women have a struggle to provide their families with life's necessities. As a Madan Sara (twin to the 'market mammy' of West Africa), some women find a foothold as the spoke in the agricultural industry that makes the whole sector work.

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