Pierre-Francois Lardet, a French journalist-turned-entrepreneur, traveled to Nicaragua in 1909 with the intention of making a beverage there that he had tasted.
Banania was born in August 1914, five years later.
France was at war when the chocolate-flavored banana powder beverage arrived.
A Black soldier in a red fez-clad mascot from the following year first appeared on an advertising poster.
On the front lines of Europe, Africa, and Anatolia during World War One, 200 000 African soldiers fought for France. They were originally from West and Central Africa’s French colonies. Many people were compelled to recruit.
On the Banania poster, the African soldier wore a signature red fez and resembled Senegalese Tirailleurs (riflemen). Because its initial recruits from Senegal were the first ones to join this military corps, which was established in 1857, it was given the name.
For their bravery, the tirailleurs were renowned. They served in World War One (1914) and later in the colonial wars in West and Central Africa. They served in France, North Africa, and the Middle East during World War II (1939-1945). During the First World War, there were at least 30 000 tirailleurs killed, and an estimated 8 000 died in the Second.
Banania’s tirailleur is smiling, seated by his side, with a bowl of the powdered drink in hand, and a rifle on the grass. His exaggerated smile and facial features resemble racial stereotypes that were prevalent in the time and in shoe polish, soap, and chocolate advertisements.
The poster’s slogan, “Y’a bon,” which means “C’est bon” (this is good) in French, was used to promote the racist caricature of the cheerful but simple African. The Y’a bon friend, or “L’ami Y’a bon,” was used as the company’s mascot.
Lardet’s Mascot tapped into a sense of pride and patriotism in the midst of World War One. According to Sandrine Lemaire, a historian and co-author of several books on French colonization, it also helped to promote public acceptance of African soldiers who were fighting on French soil. Banania was not the only one. Through propaganda, postcards, and news articles, the French government attempted to use images that depict the loyalty and military traits of France’s African soldiers.
During a 2010 discussion about Banania and colonial oppression, Pap Ndiaye, a politician and historian, claimed that “the tirailleur was an opportunistic advertising invention from Lardet… which made the consumption of Banania a quasi-patriotic act.
Banania was promoted through mascot-themed children’s comics. In one, he travels back to France and presents two boxes of Banania to Africans in loinclothes. He travels to the West Indies, the Canary Islands, and French colonial Indochina to establish banana plantations in an illustrated booklet published in 1933.
“In the 20s, 30s, 40s, Banania was everywhere. In a 2014 documentary about Banania, branding expert Jean Watin-Augouard argued that there were touchpoints throughout the industry: “it had touchpoints in every domain, including notebooks, packaging, promotional items, and cinema.”
Production at Banania tripled between the late 1930s and the early 1950s, according to the only book about Banania’s history that was published. Before Nesquik entered the market in the 1960s, these were Banania’s golden years.
According to Etienne Achille, associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, the mascot, which appeared in advertisements, packaging, and collectible items like toys, was popular throughout the 20th century because it reinforced French people’s pride in their colonial empire and their “subjects'” contribution to the war effort.
Decolonization has left a mark on the continent.
However, Banania was also shattered by decolonization as the French colonies in Africa fought for and gained independence in the 1950s and early 1960s.
With its slogan and stereotypical mascot, Banania has grown to be synonymous with racism and colonialism. The tirailleur embodies the injustice that anti-colonial movements have condemned as being a result of soldiers’ forced engagements in France.
In a 1948 poem dedicated to the tirailleurs, Leopold Sedar Senghor, who became Senegal’s first president in 1960, declared, “I will tear up the Banania smiles from all the walls of France.”
In his 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks, Martinique-born philosopher-psychiatrist Frantz Fanon made a number of references to “Y’a bon Banania” to illustrate how racist tropes are used to depict Black people in France.
The mascot remained, though with updates, despite the criticisms.
A brown triangular face with cartoon eyes and a red rectangular hat on a yellow background was introduced in 1967 as advertising promoted modern, aspirational lifestyles. However, the phrase was withdrawn in 1977.
Some brand-owned products featured a cartoonish child’s face in the 1980s and 1990s, while others retained the mascot.
A new mascot, the “grandson” of the 1915 tirailleur, was unveiled in 2004 after Banania was sold to French company Nutrial under the name Nutrimaine, who, according to Nutrimaine, represented diversity and the successful integration of migrant communities into French society. His ecstatic smile, white teeth, and red fez weren’t all that dissimilar from his predecessor’s, though.
The French brand never relinquished its position of dominance in the final decades of the 20th century, and it kept losing ground to rivals like Nesquik. It struggled financially as millennials lost interest in it.
To save the business, they had to go back to the brand’s golden era. Returning to the emblem was the only option available. Few companies have such a strong brand identity,” Achille remarked. The idea of superposition is effectively explored in this revitalized version. You immediately recall the old tirailleur when you see it.
The website Grioo.com, an online platform for the French-speaking Black community in Europe and Africa, also gained readers and activists’ attention. Can we accept that we are still represented as we were a generation ago, 90 years? Grioo launched an online petition against Banania in response to its readers.
Heritage that is “Horrible”
The “grandson” still smiles on Banania boxes in French supermarkets more than 20 years later.
Banania’s marketing, in the eyes of Achille, epitomizes France’s lack of public discussion of colonialism and postcolonial racism. Only the complete insertion of the colonial into popular culture can explain why Banania can continue to operate impunity, he said. This would not be possible in other nations.
Nutrimaine’s spokesperson declined to comment on this article.
Awatif Bentahar, 37, was a child who occasionally drank Banania and saw it on the shelves of supermarkets. She claims that the business hasn’t understood how a large portion of the population can be harmed by their heritage.
The French “children of immigrants” are aware of the agonizing history of colonization and the struggle we wage today to be respected in a society that cannot help but make references to our status as “different” French.
Bentahar wants to see Banania develop as a French woman of Moroccan descent. She removed the mascot and incorporated playful eyes and a smile as a personal project, and she made alternative decolonized packaging.
“I tried to rebrand Banania because I really like the concept of what it could be, not because I hate it. She wrote on her blog that “brands are a part of our lives, whether or not we like it.”
For a change, I’d like to see this one being on the positive side of history. “This one happened to be from my childhood.
This article is included in the series “Ordinary items, extraordinary stories,” which explores the surprising happenings that surround well-known items.  ,
Read the entire series’ more:
How the bouncy castle’s creator saved lives
How a well-known Peruvian soft drink and Coca-Cola “toe-toe” went.
How a drowning victim turned into a hero for life
How a father’s love and pandemic led to the development of a household name
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