In Bangladesh, food grown in different parts of the country is mostly used to feed the urban population. As cities expanded over the years, the inflated demand for food called for larger production capacity, new infrastructure, as well as preservation, packaging, transportation, and distribution channels. The emergence of a competitive market called for aggressive promotion. Large corporates gradually gained control of the market and were able to manipulate policies for their own benefit in collusion with local authorities. Small growers and traders were forced to reconcile with their demands.
In tracing the history of food trading, it is easy to see how it affects politics, power structures, culture, and notions of identity and nationhood. The East India Company gained control over South Asia in the eighteenth century and forced peasants to harvest indigo, tea, sugarcane, jute – all the things that were beneficial for their trade. The enforced cultivation and market dictates imperilled the lives of many.
The term ‘Banana Republic’ is used by political commentators to address issues of power, corruption, repression and failure in a country. In the nineteenth century, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe the fictional republic of Anchuria in his book Cabbages and Kings (1904). The origin of the concept however, goes back to the turn of the 20th century, when United Fruit Company, a multinational corporation, had banana plantations in many Central and South American countries. They took over a major proportion of the market. The company refused to negotiate with their workers, rather their conspiracy resulted in the Banana Massacre. Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) depicts this massacre, where the arrival of an American banana company in the fictional town of Macondo leads to killings and the financial downfall of the country.
In ‘Banana Land’, the corporations developed transport systems and telecommunications, whilst staying charge of the political situation and encouraging the use of artificial fertilisers, pesticides and chemicals to boost production. The farmers became sick due to contamination and people suffered from different diseases. In the end, ‘Banana Land’ became the symbol of Blood, Bullets and Poison.