Post Earthquake Jacmel (Haiti) Report and EMMA

critical component in what anthropologists have long called the internal Haitian marketing
system. Her opposite, and what can be conceptualized as her figurative nemesis, is the komèsan
(distributor), the handler of durable imported staples mentioned above. The komèsan is the key
figure representing the incursion of the global market economy and foreign produce into Haiti, a
link in what can be analytically categorized as a market chain separate from the sara and the
internal system, one that moves in the opposite direction, both literally, in terms of the primary
flow being urban to rural (in contrast to rural to urban), and figuratively, in terms of its
opposition and undermining of domestic production. xxi
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