Revolting Musaceae

4´43

In collaboration with Natalie Hamrlik

Berlin, New York, Guatemala (2022)

The history of the banana is deeply intertwined with imperialism, colonialism, and environmental violence. Parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic, bananas face their own, with the spread of Tropical Race 4 (TR4), a fungal disease that kills the plant. TR4 has gradually spread across major banana-producing regions, affecting the Cavendish banana —the dominant commercial variety— due to its genetic uniformity. The reliance on monocultures has made bananas particularly vulnerable, as every plant is essentially a clone, unable to develop resistance. To control the spread of diseases, plantations rely heavily on pesticides, which in turn poison the environment, the workers exposed to them, and the consumers who ingest chemical residues.

The United Fruit Company (UFCO), now known as Chiquita Brands International, played a pivotal role in South American politics during the 20th century. In 1954, the U.S. orchestrated a coup d'état in Guatemala to protect UFCO's extensive land holdings and economic interests. Guatemalans had been pushing for land reform in response to the widespread dispossession caused by UFCO, which controlled vast amounts of farmland. The democratically elected government of Jacobo Árbenz sought to redistribute unused UFCO land to peasants, triggering U.S. fears of communism. Following the coup, the U.S. installed a military dictator, who reversed land reforms and brutally repressed opposition, eventually unfolding in a civil war. The Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996) is considered one of the bloodiest civil wars in Latin America. It lasted 36 years, leading to the deaths and disappearances of an estimated 200,000 people, most of whom were Indigenous Maya civilians. The war was marked by state-sponsored violence, including massacres, forced disappearances, and genocide under military regimes.

UFCO's influence extended beyond economic control; it actively engaged in propaganda to shape public perception. In the U.S., the company promoted bananas as a staple fruit, emphasizing their health benefits to boost consumer demand. Television, which had become a dominant cultural force in American households, played a key role in spreading propaganda. Through commercials, news reports, and entertainment, the banana was marketed as an essential part of the American diet, while political broadcasts framed Guatemalan leaders as communist threats, leveraging Cold War anxieties to justify intervention. 

The Plantationocene is a proposed alternative to the term Anthropocene, focusing on the role of plantation economies in shaping the modern world. The concept highlights how plantation systems—historically rooted in slavery, forced labor, and land dispossession—continue to shape contemporary economies, environments, bodies, and social structures.