

Qui pourra vous chanter si ce n’est votre frère d’armes, votre frère de sang? Vous Tirailleurs Sénégalais, mes frères noirs à la main chaude sous la glace et la mort Collectif des Antillais, Guyanais, Réunionnais et Mahorais - a group that advocates against vestiges of colonialism in France - forced the company to give up its copyright to the “ Y’a bon” slogan, even though, as stated above, it had not been used since 1977.Īmazingly enough, you can order Banania on. The Collectifdom or le Nutrimaine acquired Banania from Unilever in 2003. Fanon, in Peau noire, masques blancs ( Black Skin, White Masks) (1952) discussed the objectification of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais, saying they became “an object in the midst of other objects.” (p. Writers such as Frantz Fanon have derided Banania, calling its advertising “racist” and colonialist. The smiling African man represented the Tirailleurs Sénégalais – West African troops who fought (and died) for the French in World War I, 30,000 of them. In 1915, Nutrial, the company that owned the rights to Banania, came up with the following logo: The slogan has not been in use since 1977. “ Y’a bon,” the most prevalent slogan imprinted on Banania’s advertising, was nothing more than a made-up phrase intending to convey the dialect of French spoken by Africans. Preliminary advertising featured the face of an Antillaise woman, later replaced by the widely recognized Tirailleur Sénégalais. Banania’s slogan during World War I played on French feelings of patriotism and nationalism: Pour nos soldats la nourriture abondante qui se conserve sous le moindre volume possible (“for our soldiers: the abundant food which keeps, using the least possible space”). Lardet returned to France, set up his company, and began marketing the cocoa powder in 1912. Likely his inspiration came from the activities of United Fruit Company, a significant presence in Nicaragua at the time, and in other Central American countries. He stumbled upon a recipe for a cocoa-flavored beverage.

The story began in 1909 when French banker and journalist Pierre-François Lardet spent some time near Lake Managua, in Nicaragua. Note that bananas, cacao, and sugar were all major export crops. The “recipe” for Banania’s product reads like a weaning food: cocoa, cereal, banana flour, sugar, and honey. Using foods imported from France’s tropical colonies, chiefly in West Africa, Banania created a product that became part of many French people’s fondest memories of childhood. Originating in 1912, the French company Banania began marketing a cocoa-flavored breakfast powder. In any case, branding products sometimes pinches cultural nerves.īanania, a French product with very strong branding, began in the heyday of France’s colonial empire and is still a part of French life. Very capitalistic, those cowboys, don’t you think? For many Americans it suggests branding cattle and other property, to prove ownership. Such a loaded word, when you consider it. ~~ Léopold Sédar Senghor, poet and first president of independent Senegal*īranding. I will tear down those Banania smiles from the walls of France.
