Makira's Gold

BANANA GOLD

By Julian Mak’a

Makira-Ulawa Province is always called a banana land. And those who come from it are either labelled ‘banana boy’ or ‘banana girl’. This is not derogative. The label alludes to the Province having the most variety of bananas in Solomon Islands. And is the main staple of the people there. This label naturally, causes embarrassment to some, if not most people from the Province. 

But health experts and scientists are finding out that some of the banana varieties there have some healing qualities. They claim that consumption of certain colored bananas such as yellow or brown can prevent some major non communicable diseases such as heart attacks, hypertension or cancer.

A local chemical scientist in the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in Honiara, Dickson Mangongi, told me in 2005 after he attended a regional food scientists meeting in Nadi, Fiji, that scientists have discovered a yellow banana has the most healing qualities. Some people in the Makira-Ulawa Province call this variety, toroka or toraka.

Four overseas scientists who visited the Province in 2007 were reported as affirming this belief. John Murray, owner of Sanbis Lodge in Kira Kira, capital of the Province said the team held a meeting there and publicly encouraged the people to eat more of the yellow varieties, especially the toroka. There are five or six varieties of the toroka in the Province. Unlike other bananas bunches, the toroka’s stands upright. But the colour of the inside part of the fruits of all the varieties is yellow.

The scientists also visited a banana plantation at Manivovo Rural Training Centre, RTC, in the south eastern end of the Province in which more than one hundred varieties of bananas had been planted. Principal of the centre, Francis Wehi, who initiated the idea, told me that his intention was to find out the total number of banana varieties in the Province. He said he’d discovered there are around 106 varieties. However, when the trees yielded, he found that although different in name, two varieties were the same as one he’d already identified. Mr Wehi also said the idea to plant the varieties was to improve food security for the school.

“Imagine 100 bananas ripening at the same time. It’s a huge amount. Ripe bananas are available all the time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s great - really good, actually. And there’s a big improvement in student performances too. Some time later the Kastom Garden Association in Honiara learned about the plantation and supported us with promotions both locally and overseas,” said Wehi.

Mr Wehi also referred to the four scientists who visited last year and said they will again be visiting there in May this year.

Wehi had spent more than 20 years working as caretaker of Manivovo, a very remote Catholic Church station located at the south eastern tip end of Makira-Ulawa Province. Within that time, the church and the government decided to turn the station into an RTC so he became the Principal from day one.

Banana has always been a staple food for the people of Makira-Ulawa Province. The people either roast it on an open fire or bake it in an oven or mix it with sweet potato, yam or whatever other crop was available and was to their liking in a pot and boil it. Or leave it to ripen for a family to enjoy.

For hundreds of centuries, the toroka had been and still used for custom feasts and other traditional food exchanges among tribes or villages. Family members and relatives always contributed bananas during such occasions. In fact, without bananas, no traditional feast could be regarded as complete on Makira-Ulawa. And although not recognized for its healing qualities by the people, the toroka always featured during these revered occasions.

During the colonial period, it was said, a certain family from the then Western Solomons arrived there with their father, a police officer. One day the wife went to the Kira Kira market and bought some toroka fruits. The next day, the mother rushed to the hospital and agitated to a nurse that a strange illness had affected her family. All of them, she had told the nurse, peed yellow. Instead of being worried, the nurse calmly asked whether or not she had bought any yellow bananas at the market the previous day. The shaking mother had nodded yes.

”That’s the cause of your fears, my dear,” the nurse smiled at the still very agitated mother. The nurse further explained that everyone that ate the banana experienced the same thing. It’s normal, so don’t worry. It will go away after one day,” the nurse was said to have told the mother.

Actually, out of all the different varieties of bananas in the Province, only the toroka does this. That is the consumer’s pee will turn yellow as though he or she has hepatitis B.

But the scientists told the crowd at Kira Kira during their talk last year that it’s the yellow liquid in the toroka that prevents heart attacks and other such diseases. The scientists, it was claimed, also told their audience to eat more of the yellow leafed cabbages, yellow kumara (sweet potatoes) and bananas. They are really good for the body the scientists were reported as telling the people.

“A lot of people here felt really proud after they heard these revelations,” said John Murry, owner and operator of Sanbis Lodge in KiraKira. “The ‘banana’ label is a good and proud one to have,” he said. “Maybe those who use it to amuse themselves or degrade us will sit up straight and think again,” said Murray.

The Makira-Ulawa Province is in the eastern part of the country and is about eight to ten hours by boat from Honiara or 35 to 50 minutes by plane.