How a children’s chocolate drink became a symbol of French colonialism

In 1909, French journalist-turned-entrepreneur Pierre-Francois Lardet returned from a trip to Nicaragua determined to recreate a beverage he had tasted there.

Five years later, in August 1914, Banania was born.

The arrival of the chocolate-flavoured banana powder drink came just as France found itself at war.

The following year, its mascot – a Black soldier wearing a red fez – first appeared on an advertising poster.

During World War I, 200,000 African soldiers fought for France on the battlefields of Europe, Africa and Anatolia. They came from French colonies in West and Central Africa. Many were forcibly recruited.

The African soldier on the Banania poster resembled soldiers known as the Senegalese Tirailleurs (riflemen), who wore a signature red fez. This military corps, founded in