#CHOCOLAT BANANIA FULL#

Used for everyday communication, these postcards were largely successful inВ instilling nationwide support for colonial troops while enforcing racist attitudes toward them. Many of theseВ postcards also include dialogue, written inВ the highly simplified, petit nГЁgreВ pidginВ language that further characterized subjects as unsophisticated or immature.ДЄ postcard in a set of three of a boyish looking soldier holding two German spiked helmets, with the caption, вЂњGlory to Greater FranceвЂќ Men were oftenВ shown withВ nurses, and made to look childlike and dependent on their caretakers. One chapter explores the trope of theВ wounded warrior, intended toВ underscore sacrifices colonial troops supposedly willingly made.

#CHOCOLAT BANANIA FULL#

Some examples show soldiers as proud, disciplined defenders of France, in full uniform and standing tall - but the men are sometimes barefoot to indicate вЂњsavagery.вЂќ Still others portrayВ the tirailleurВ as ruthless and wild to scare German enemies, showing soldiers committing acts of cannibalism or mutilation, from holding up an ear to raising the bloodied heads of Kaiser Wilhelm and Emperor Franz Joseph. His selection exemplifies how these imagesвЂ™ meanings glaringly contradict one another how the expressions and actions of soldiers were blithely tweaked in all kinds of ways to serve a political purpose. Those illustrating the book come from LikoskyвЂ™s personal collection, and are organized into chapters based on their intended messages. The propaganda primarily took the form of postcards, commercially made, mass distributed, and cheap to procure and send. вЂњAt the same time, his image would be softened to show a less threatening side: he was now a naive and child-like figure - a grand enfantВ - amicable and ever ready to flash a broad smile.вЂќ вЂњPropaganda would help reassure the French that the African savage was now a disciplined soldier willing to serve his mother country,вЂќ as Likosky writes. Illustrated with over 150 images, the title analyzesВ a range of stereotypical images of the black African soldier, who was characterized as both heroic and strong, but still limited in hisВ power, as in the Banania advertisements that suggest a subservient and harmlessВ individual. The function of this careful manipulation of the image of African infantrymen between 19 is explored in With a Weapon and a Grin, a heavily researched book by Stephan LikoskyВ recently published by Schiffer Publishing. Postcard of a Red Cross nurse helping a wounded African soldier, with theВ caption, вЂњWhite sister and Black brotherвЂќ Not all were from Senegal - other men were brought from their homes in Guinea and Mali, for instance - but they were referred to in FranceВ under one blanket term, and a slew of demeaning caricaturesВ came to erase their identities and represent them, created as propaganda forВ France. The characterВ was just one of many widely circulated racist illustrations of these colonial troops, thousands of whom were recruited to serve France in itsВ battle against Germany. Wearing a red chechia cap and often depicted with a rifle, the figure specifically represented the tirailleurs sГ©nГ©galais, or Senegalese soldiers who fought in the French army during World War I. Three years later, she was replaced with a smiling African man holding a spoon ofВ the drinkВ like a child and accompanied with the slogan, вЂњYвЂ™a bonвЂќ - a phrase of pidgin French that translates to, вЂњItвЂ™s good.вЂќ The image of a smiling woman from Antilles, standing between two bushels of bananas, was the first image used in 1912 to advertise Banania, aВ banana-flavored chocolate drink most widely distributed in France. An iconic image of the tirailleur sГ©nГ©galais used in an ad for the breakfast drink Banania (all images courtesyВ Schiffer Publishing)