The Chameleon Banana
The
Chameleon Banana
December 2024
Prologue
Greetings!
The end of 2024 ramblings will be short for two primary reasons !
First, our beloved Lusuku (Banana plantation) faced a significant setback on April 20th, 2024 during a fierce thunderstorm. We mourned the loss of over 100 stools with banana bunches at different stages of growth. However, we've dedicated much of this year to nurturing saplings for planting a new Lusuku, a task we'll carry into 2025 with determination, anticipation and resilience.
Second, much of our effort went toward sustaining the coffee fields. We have quite a few scattered in different places: Jjongoza South, Kalwanga East, Nninzi South, Nninzi Kiwewa School, Nninzi Dimiti, and of course, here at our base, Nninzi ku Madaala (although the Madaala (steps) landmark will definitely disappear in 2025 because of the Masaka-Mutukula Road reconstruction!)
As many of you living in Uganda (and perhaps elsewhere) have heard, this year's coffee harvest throughout Uganda was abundant. The prices, too, were said to be highly competitive. As a result, we got a little something to put into our pockets, but it didn't stay there for long. We had to replant lost trees, fill gaps as well as fight the many pests, the drought, and the increasingly poor soil. Thus we needed a lot more income if we were to buy new cars and Bodaboda taxis as many people did, or so we heard! We wait to see what happens next season!
Given the two factors above our concentration elsewhere was sparse. This following story will be brief in words but rich in visuals!
In 2021, we shared our ambition to cultivate 'red' bananas. We've made significant strides, successfully growing the ornamental variety as we have shown in previous Christmas Cards. Three years ago we planted a sapling variety that the vendor assured us would produce red banana fingers. The fingers would in turn, contain large black seeds that are used as Empiki (beads) for playing the Uganda Mancala board game (Omweso).
The sapling grew and produced an inflorescence in April 2024. What happened then?
Well! Our cameras were there to capture the key moments in the drama and witness the unexpected?
Figure 1
By March, 2o24, the red-colored stem was sturdy and had propagated several saplings around it. Later, we removed several of them to ensure the primary stool would have access to sufficient food and water to produce a respectable red banana bunch.
Figure 2
Inspecting the top of the tallest primary stool on March 7, 2024, revealed that it had extruded its final leaf, which can be seen in the center standing vertically. This short leaf is always an indication that the banana inflorescence is about to emerge. We hardly slept because of the excitement of anticipating what was to come. Was our long held dream about to be fulfilled?
Figure 3
By April 11, 2024, not only had the florets of the banana inflorescence emerged, but the inflorescence had already turned downwards as expected. On the left of the banana grove is a coffee tree, while on the right is a monk tree (Omutuguunda) with small, shiny and round fruits. We rested assured the red banana bunch was in good company!
Taking a close look on April 11, 2024 (actually, this shot was taken standing on a chair as I have become shorter as I grow wiser), the color of the fruits' ovaries is a deep mauve and not red. However, this color was indeed a promising development that somewhat dovetailed with our expectations. However, the ovaries of the lower hands that had just emerged had a light yellow-green color before they turned mauve. The florets' petals were white and tubular and thus extremely popular with bees and other insects.
Figure 5
Red-colored bracts that kept falling away from the inflorescence littered the grass beneath the stool on April 11, 2024. They were hard to the touch and rotted slowly.
Figure 6
Within a week, i.e., April 19, 2024, the final shape and, we hoped, color as well, of the banana bunch had emerged. Typically, we would have cut off the now remaining part of the inflorescence as it was no longer useful to the plant. It is believed to deprive the growing bunch of water and nutrients. However, the sapling's vendor warned that the banana bunch would turn green if we cut off the useless inflorescence. So, despite dabbling in science now and then, we left the inflorescence alone, giving our superstitions room enough to thrive and flourish!
Figure 7
By June 19, 2024, the useless inflorescence had grown to a tremendous length. Obviously, it fed off the food that would have enabled the banana bunch to get much bigger than it was! Still, we obeyed the vendor's directive, afraid the bunch would turn green overnight if we got rid of the remnants.
Figure 8
On July 31, 2024, a day we all were at home to 'Okulima ebijja' (tend to the grave sites), we gathered not far from the mauve banana grove. This day, marked thirty years since the passing of the estate's patriarch, Petero Musaazi. Someone spotted a ripened banana finger on top of the mauve bunch! We excitedly found a Jembe and prepared ourselves for the harvest.
Figure 9
But I wanted to confirm the correctness of the decision we had made before acting. Therefore, once more I climbed on a chair and took a closer view of the bunch. Indeed, the bunch with seven hands was ready for harvesting! A feast was in the making, or so we thought. We soon learned we were wrong. Experience is said to be the best teacher!
Figure 10
Farmers Mr. Kimbowa and Mr. Kinkumu were on hand to cut down the heavy bunch that was supported by an even weightier stem. It immediately became puzzling that the bunch which had appeared mauve while it was still supported by the upright stem now looked decidedly green as it landed on the grass. Was something happing? Whispers emerged among the small gathering. What were they saying?
Figure 11
I measured the useless inflorescence and found it to be over three feet long! The banana was less than half that and about the same length as the core (Ekikolokomba). Adding all the inedible parts on this ensemble revealed how much the plant takes care of its interests rather than the banana consumer's! Whispering among the gathering continued. What was happening?
Some of the onlookers who had seen the bunch before the men cut down the stem claimed the bunch had been 'completely' mauve and that its color changed the second the men made the first cut on the stem. Others asserted the banana fingers which were mauve had progressively become green as the bunch was lowered to the ground. The fingers had taken on the color of the grass!
Figure 13
One of the most thrilling moments in the discussion was when we decided to cut through the stem to see what was happening to it. There were suggestions it was all white or red. One of the men took the bold step to slice the stem with one clean sweep of the sharp Jembe! This led to a significant discovery -the core which supports the bunch was completely white inside but covered on the outside with a reddish-mauve membrane.
This was the same pattern in the sheaths where the lattice was white and the bark reddish-mauve as seen above.
Someone pointed out that the reddish or mauve color is interspaced with white and faint yellow-green, suggesting that the location of these colors may be interchangeable depending on the banana's stage of development. Of course, we had no way of checking the veracity of these proposals since the 'various stages of development' had passed by us long ago!
Despite our differing interpretations, we all shared a palpable sense of excitement about our significant discovery, which united us and propelled us forward. However, we doubted if there was further to go!
'It is a chameleon banana!' Peter, a nine-year old grandson exclaimed to the amazement of everyone. 'The banana, like a chameleon changes color depending on its surroundings,' Peter insisted.
All of us burst into laughter, skeptical. However, we realized that none of us could challenge Peter's idea as we had nothing better to offer either at the front or back of our agile minds, to explain what we had discovered.
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