ABSTRACT
The history of the domestic pig in Africa is highly controversial. Its ancestor, the wild pig, Sus scrofa, is native to North Africa, and its range extends along the Atlantic coast at least as far as the Rio de Oro. The Maghreb race is sometimes known as Sus scrofa barbarus and there was in addition a Saharan race known as sahariensis (Epstein 1971ii:314). A more recent classification conjoins these into a single race Sus scrofa algira (Groves 1981:29). There is no positive evidence for the domestication of the pig in Africa although this was argued by some writers in the early part of this century (Epstein 1971 ii). Sus scrofa gave rise to all domesticated pigs and it continues to thrive in the wild.
