The Humble Banana: A Story of Imperialist War, Corporate Greed, and Extinction

The story of the banana is the story of the Global Majority. Exploited and farmed to death by colonizers, we stand poised on the brink of extinction.

The United States presents itself as a fighter for democracy and an advocate for freedom but behind this façade is a history full of corruption and violence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the story of the humble banana. It is a tale of greed, war and imperialism that is a microcosm of what the Western Empire does on a global scale to dominate and extract wealth from developing countries.

The United Fruit Company aka El Pulpo

Like most of Latin America, Guatemala was mainly an agricultural economy relying heavily on the export of coffee beans and bananas. US companies like the United Fruit Company, today operating as Chiquita Brands International, dominated the economy and exploited workers on its vast banana plantations. The United Fruit Company was aptly named El Pulpo (the Octopus) because its tentacles reached all the way from the banana plantations of Guatemala to the CIA, and to the highest echelons of the White House. The company had a monopoly on the fruit industry, holding more than 42% of Guatemala’s…