Banana massacre in history

Bananas are originally from Eastern Asia but made their way to the Americas in the 1500s and grew most bountiful in what is today Central and South America. For several hundred years, all was peaceful in the world of bananas.

In November 1928, grumbling among the more than 25,000 workers on the banana plantations of the United Fruit Company turned into a united effort with a well-organized strike against the massive American corporation. United Fruit Company had become a local monopoly by developing strong ties to the Colombian and American governments and building its own railway system to transport its bananas.

On the evening of October 5, 1928, the delegates for Colombia’s banana workers in Magdalena gathered to discuss their grievances. Among their concerns were their long hours and low pay.

The banana workers’ demands included a 6-day work week, eight-hour days, medical care and the elimination of scrips (only good at company stores) that were paid to the workers instead of cash.

A strike began on November 12, 1928, when the workers ceased to work until the company would reach an agreement with them to grant them dignified working conditions. The main objective of the strike was to put pressure on the UFC to force it to comply with the Colombian Labor laws approved in 1915, which the United Fruit Company avoided to comply since it meant to grant certain benefits to workers.

The workers were immediately and unjustly portrayed as “communists” by the local newspapers. The U.S. government threatened to invade, using the U.S. Marine Corps that were stationed off the shores of Ciénaga, should the Colombian government not act to protect United Fruit’s interests. Government officials in Bogota were frightened by the possibility the strike was the start of a full-fledged revolution and the possibility of American intervention.

The strike lasted two months, during which time the workers briefly established popular sovereignty, deciding how best to organize themselves. The striking workers tested the United Fruit Company’s ability to continue to exert power through its ad hoc network of corporations, missionaries, and mercenaries backed by the military and diplomatic power of the U.S. government.

On November 12, 1928, the United Fruit Company convinced the Colombian government to send in troops to break the strike on the grounds that an organized workforce was akin to Communism, and after weeks of tension, the army opened machine gun fire on the striking crowd in the town square of Cienaga on December 6.

The figures about the number of workers killed greatly fluctuate depending on the source. Historians estimate as many as 47 in the shootout and up to 2,000 in the aftermath, when the government and company spent weeks cracking down on dissidents.
Banana massacre in history

Symptoms of Panama disease

The first records of this disease were in Australia in 1876. The disease is so virulent that in the early 20th century it killed nearly every banana plant in Suriname. In 1931, Scottish agronomist Clause Wardlaw found Panama disease in 15,000 acres on Jamaica and 50,000 acres in Panama, from which it derives its name.

The first external symptoms of Panama disease are a yellowing of the oldest leaves or a longitudinal splitting of the lower portion of the outer leaf sheaths on the pseudostem of plants that are usually more than 4 months old.

Yellowing begins with the oldest and progresses to the youngest leaves of the plant. This is followed by wilting and buckling of leaves at petiole base.

As the disease progresses younger and younger leaves collapse, until the entire canopy consists of dead or dying leaves.

However, fruits are not infected and are not discolored. This distinguishes fusarium wilt of banana from bacterial wilt of same plant. Panama disease presently is controlled through the use of resistant (Cavendish) varieties.
Symptoms of Panama disease

History of banana in India

Plantains or banana plants were cultivated in India from very early times. Religious rituals in Sastric tradition describe it as highly auspicious plant, particularly, for marriage ceremonies.

The discovery of banana phytoliths at Kot Diji, south Pakistan, a site from the Indus Valley civilizations which was inhabited around 2000 BC, indicates that this fruit already reached the northwest part of the South Asian continent.

Bananas are put into a variety of uses in India, especially in South India. Almost every part of the plant is used is in some way or another; hence it is popularly known as ‘Kalpatharu’.

The fruit is easily digestible, a good food for people suffering from gastritis and other stomach ailments. In Southern India, banana leaves were and still used as plates for serving and eating food.

In traditional medicine in India the golden banana is regarded as nature’s secret of perpetual youth, promoting healthy digestion and creating a feeling of youthfulness.

At an Indian wedding, the groom gives the bride a banana as a symbol of fertility. The banana is also the subject of Hindu art. In the Vedic tradition a banana grove is home to the monkey god Hanuman.

Descriptions of bananas are given in Greek writings on 327 BC in Indus Valley, during the expedition of Alexander the Great in India.

Most botanists believe that bananas were introduced from India to the Middle East and across North America by Arabs.
History of banana in India

Origin and History of Banana

Origin and History of Banana
Bananas are believed to have originated primarily in Malaysia about 4,000 years ago, thence they spread over an area from India to the Philippines and New Guinea.

People probably used bananas for food long before recorded history. The armies of Alexander the Great found the bananas growing in India in 327 BC.

Arabian traders introduced the banana plant into Africa at a very early date since Portuguese explorers who discovered the Guinea Coast of Africa found bananas growing there in 1482 A.D.

Then, soon after the discovery of the New World explorers took bananas from Africa to tropical America. Thus, the banana plant traveled more than half way around the world to reach the areas of tropical America where, today, about two thirds of the world’s bananas are produced.

It was not until later part of the 19th century that bananas were brought into the United States in quantities for sale in stores.

Even then only those people who lived near seacoast cities where bananas schooners docked tasted or saw bananas.

Bananas are more perishable than some other fruits; so specialized, rapid transport needed to be developed before the use banana became widespread.

Producing bananas and getting them to market on temperature areas of the world stimulated the creation of large banana plantations.

The first big name on banana export business was the United Fruit Company, formed in 1899, which in 1970 merged into United Brands.

Standard Fruit and Steamship Company was established in 1923 as a competitor to the United Fruit Company. In the early days of banana industry, the large landholdings and one –crop economics made these multinational campaniles important influences in some Latin American countries.
Origin and History of Banana

Historical Notes of Banana

Historical Notes of Banana
Bananas figs produced by sun drying ripe bananas may be one of the oldest processed food products.

After banana figs, the next processed banana products were apparently dehydrated flakes and power.

In 1944, the total volume of USA imports peaked to around 5200 ton per year, followed by a decline in 2 years to less than half that amount.

In 1940s Ecuador was not a large exporter of banana flakes but is now the world’s largest supplier, mostly from the Confoco plant near Machala in the southern banana growing region.

Banana puree is at present the highest volume processed banana product. The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) pioneered the production of aseptic banana puree at a plant on the north shore of the Dominican Republic near the town of Pepillo Salcedo.

India has made several efforts to enter the processed bananas market in the US most of which seem failed, but in Europe and other market, some progress has been made.

Banana production in India has traditionally revolved around the monsoon rains and replanting every year mostly on small farms.

As long as this situation persists, it will be hard for India to compete with the comparatively sophisticated large farm agriculture of the Latin America major exporting countries.

Indonesia has installed a modern banana processing plant by judging by US import statistics it has had no significant effect on the US market. With the large populations of countries like China and India nearby, Indonesia may not need to export to the US to maintain healthy levels of processed banana production.
Historical Notes of Banana

History: Bananas During 1840s in Rio Negro

History: Bananas During 1840s in Rio Negro
In the mid 1840s, Thomas Young, Deputy Superintendent of the British Central American Land Company, traveled along the Rio Negro, one of many rivers that cut through the narrow coastal plain that stretches along Honduras’s Caribbean coastline.

Paddling upstream with a group of Miskito Indians, Young observed “thousands of banana tress growing spontaneously, the fruit of which is so much sought after by the natives, who come from very distant parts to Black River, to gather it.”

He noted the ease with which the plant could be cultivated and added that “the ripe fruit is highly esteemed, although it is apt to disagree with European if eaten shortly before or after taking spirits.

The green fruit is cut onto slices by the Spaniards and expose to the sun, and when rubbed, forms a kind of flour of which they are fond.

When Young visited the Rio Negro region, bananas were a novelty item in Europe and the United States, and little export oriented agricultural of any kind took place in the Caribbean lowlands of Honduras.

Most of the region’s nineteenth century exports, including mahogany, fustic (a dyewood), deer skins, sarsaparilla, and rubber, were extracts from forested ecosystems and wetlands.

As late as 1859, traveler journeying by canoe from Omoa to Puerto Corte’s described forests that extended from hillsides down to the edge of narrow sandy beaches along the coast.

Agriculture in the region can best be described as small scale monocultures and polycultures, Extensive plantings of bananas, plantains, sugar cane, and pastureland were few and geographically dispersed.

This situation started to change in the 1870s, when schooners from US ports began arriving with increasing frequency in order to purchase bananas and coconuts.

Around the same time, the Honduran national government began to embrace export oriented economic development models.
History: Bananas During 1840s in Rio Negro

Cavendish Banana

Cavendish Banana
Cavendish banana is common in the world banana trade. It is cultivars originating in Vietnam and China.

It becomes replacement for Gros Michel banana in the 1950s. Bananas first became widely popular in the 1800s, when railway companies started establishing plantations of Gros Michel or “Big Michael” bananas along their tracks.

These bananas could be easily transported once they were ripe, generating double profits for the railway by allowing the company to charge for passengers and freight, and to transport a costly exotic food on the same train.

By the 1920s, however, a problem was starting to develop with the Big Michael cultivar; the bananas were susceptible to Panama Disease, a fungus which attacks and kills banana plants. In the 1950s, it was clear that this cultivar was in trouble, and the Cavendish banana was selected to replace it.

Cavendish banana plantations can be found in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia and the bulk of bananas on the shelves of Western supermarkets are Cavendish banana.

Cavendish banana range from approximately 15-25 c, in length and are used in baking, fruit salads, and to compliment foods.

The outer skin is partially green when sold in food markets and turns yellow when it ripens. When over-ripe, the skin will turn black and the flesh becomes mushy.

Bananas ripen naturally and are at their peak ripeness when the peel is all yellow with a few dark brown specks beginning to appear.

The Cavendish is quite possibly the world’s perfect food. They are nutritious and convenient, there are cheap and consistently available.

Americans eat more bananas than any other kind of fresh fruit, averaging about 26.2 pounds of them per year, per person.

It also turn out that 100 billion Cavendish bananas consumed annually worldwide are perfect from a genetic standpoint, every single one a duplicate of every other.
Cavendish Banana