[Sca-cooks] plantain, bananas, herbals

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Wed Sep 2 06:47:46 PDT 2009


>>According to the Big Black Book of Doom, which I know is unreliable about 
>>a lot of things but should provide at least a starting point for looking 
>>for other sources of information, all species of the Musa genus are 
>>indigenous to the tropical region of Southeast Asia. It's thought (again, 
>>citing Wikipedia) that Portuguese Franciscan friars are responsible for 
>>bringing the plantain to the Americas. FROM Africa.
>>
>>So, if that is accurate information (and yes, I know that's a BIG IF), 
>>that argues that plantains are Period for Southeast Asia, Africa, and the 
>>cute little territory that lies between them (Near East).
>
> I don't follow that. The are period for Southeast Asia. They may be period 
> for Africa, if the friars brought them to the Americas from there before 
> 1600. But how does that make them period for the Near East?
>
> Incidentally, I'm not sure how (or if) people in this discussion are 
> distinguishing "near east" from "middle east." I think of them as roughly 
> synonymous.
> -- 
> David/Cariadoc

You're looking at Wikipedia error and a failure to more thoroughly research 
the subject.

Bananas and plantains are believed to have entered Africa via sea migration 
from SE Asia to Madagascar, then been spread through the Congo to West 
Africa.  The Portuguese are believed to have found bananas in West Africa 
and transplanted them to the Canary Islands.  The Canary Islands were seized 
by Spain in the 15th Century.  Banana shoots were transplanted to Santo 
Domingo in 1516 by the Spanish Fra Tomas de Berlanga (I've also seen it 
spelled Berlinga, but the Catholic Encyclopedia uses Berlanga).  Fra Tomas 
was a Dominican and he is specifically credited with this in Oviedo's work 
on the West Indies (1523 or 1526, IIRC).

The assumption that bananas came to Africa from the Near East is easily 
dispelled by recent archeological work that has pushed back the existence of 
bananas in Southern Africa from 3rd Century BCE to 8th Century BCE (if I 
correctly understood the dating technique).  The locale reinforces the sea 
migration theory.

Bear 




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