Title: When Banana was King

Author: Leslie Gordon Goffe

Publishers: LMH Publishing Limited

Reviewed by: Robert Hart

It is a well-known fact that St. Mary is one of the poorest parishes in our little island paradise, Jamaica. However, in the late 19 to early 20th century, the parish was a booming mecca of the country's agricultural export trade. The produce of choice? Bananas.

Leslie Gordon Goffe's When Banana Was King is a detailed description of how his great-grandfather, years before Independence, was able to tap into that market and hold his own as a force to be reckoned with at a time when there was little chance for a Black man becoming successful in the world.

The story of Alfred Constantine 'A.C.' Goffe's rise in the billion-dollar industry is not without its fair share of intrigue as this banana man, the son of a former slave girl, found himself facing serious jail time in 1908 after being accused in the United States of conspiring with the Mafia to murder a detested rival. He would be vindicated in that case and welcomed back to the island by none other than this very newspaper.

"In Mr. Goffe's case, he knew he was innocent, for the man is a countryman of ours, and there is something in the feeling of a common nationality which stirs in the breast when life or liberty of a fellow countryman is at stake in a foreign land. We congratulate Mr. Goffe."

The author, through his in depth research, presents this quote from an editorial written in The Gleaner by editor Herbert George de Lisser upon news that all charges had been dropped against the Jamaican banana man.

The case highlights for readers, quite early in the story, how intense the battle for banana supremacy was at the time.

However, there would be several more battles for A.C. Goffe, the independent banana exporter, to fight as he sought to maintain his foothold in the industry throughout subsequent years. It would be a formidable task against larger companies that would seek to wipe out competition from the independents. These battles are presented in detail to give the reader a truly comprehensive understanding of the Jamaican banana man's role in the industry and trade with the United States.

Leslie Gordon Goffe, who grew up in England, reached out to several sources - including family members, Jamaica's National Archives, Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Washington D.C.'s Library of Congress - to put together the pieces that would make up his great-grandfather's complete story.

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However, this at times proves a danger as the story often rambles on with what reads like sidebar discussions aimed undoubtedly at providing a more rounded understanding of the time period. This is not to say that it is unnecessary to have this understanding but, unfortunately, the anthropological approach to the subject matter often brings the story to a crawl, inducing the reader to consider skipping a few pages.

It is clear that the author is proud of his great-grandfather's accomplishments, but this reader is still left wondering whether a greater sense of passion for the subject matter could not have been translated to the page.

But then, of course, it has been proven in the past that documenting history from a 'passionate' point of view often skews the facts and leaves the empty vessels waiting to soak up the information with a questionable understanding of what had taken place.