Somalia's Banana Battles
Kerning Cultures
Kerning Cultures Network
4.9 • 529 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You might remember Somali bananas from your childhood, lining the shelves at your local supermarket. During the late 80s and early 90s, Somalia made millions of dollars exporting its coveted bananas to Italy and the Middle East. But this thriving export business ground to a halt suddenly in 1991, when the country was thrown into the grip of a civil war.
Decades later, farmers have returned home to try and bring the Somali banana back to its former glory. But with so much standing in their way – ruined farmland, the threat of Al Shabab, and the ghosts of warring militias and multinational banana companies – will they succeed?
This episode was produced by Nadeen Shaker and Sawsan Abdillahi and edited by Dana Ballout and Alex Atack. Fact checking was by Deena Sabry and sound design by Monzer El-Hachem. Our team also includes Zeina Dowidar and Finbar Anderson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm going to be able to be |
| 0:02.9 | predictable. They've seen it happen. |
| 0:05.1 | And one story that always kind of captures my imagination. |
| 0:08.3 | It's fair. |
| 0:08.8 | The street's lost culture. |
| 0:13.0 | And you're listening to Kearning Cultures. |
| 0:19.0 | I'm Dana Balutz and this is Kernan Cultures. |
| 0:24.8 | Can I interview you about bananas? |
| 0:27.7 | Our story today starts in Minneapolis, the Somali heartland of America. |
| 0:32.9 | The place is Koura Halal restaurant, and we're asking people about a staple of Somali cuisine, |
| 0:39.6 | a mascot to sell, the Somali banana. |
| 0:43.6 | So the question is, where do you think bananas originated from? |
| 0:47.8 | Somalia. |
| 0:49.6 | Okay. |
| 0:51.0 | How do you think that story went? |
| 0:53.8 | So I'm thinking there was this farmer. Okay. How do you think that story went? So I'm thinking there was this farmer. |
| 0:58.4 | And so he was hungry too. It was really hot. |
| 1:01.3 | It was like 3 p.m. The sun was boiling down on him. |
| 1:03.6 | So then he knocked on the tree trunk. |
| 1:07.5 | And these mystical yellow bananas came. |
| 1:14.6 | And then he's like, he took them he ran to the village i was like these are the bananas they're going to be called bananas when do you think the |
| 1:19.7 | first banana was discovered for it i honestly think it started with some girl you know in bad deal |
... |
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