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Scientific Banana Republics:  
Do They Exist? 

Faina Linkov1, Shalkar 

Adambekov1,  Sharon 

Goughnour1, Sharon C. Welburn2 

Nicolas Padilla-Raygoza3, Musa 

Kana4,5, Eugene Shubnikov6, 

Mustapha M. Mustapha7, Aamir 

Sheikh8, Ronald LaPorte2 

 
1Department of Ob/Gyn, University of Pittsburgh School of 

Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA,USA; 2Department of 

Epidemioloy, Graduate School of Public Health, University 

of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; 3Department of Nursing 

and Obstetrics, Division of Health Sciences and 

Engineering, University of Guanajuato, Mexico; 4EPIUnit, 

Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, 

Portugal; 5Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of 

Medicine, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria; 

6Institute of Internal Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russian 

Federation; 7Center for Innovative Antimicrobial Therapy 

School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 

PA, USA; 8Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN, USA 

 

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LINKOV 

 

 

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Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

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Scientific Banana Republics:  
Do They Exist? 

Faina Linkov1, Shalkar Adambekov1,  

Sharon Goughnour1, Sharon C. 

Welburn2 Nicolas Padilla-Raygoza3, 

Musa Kana4,5, Eugene Shubnikov6, 

Mustapha M. Mustapha7, Aamir 

Sheikh8, Ronald LaPorte2 

 
1Department of Ob/Gyn, University of Pittsburgh School of 

Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA,USA; 2Department of Epidemioloy, 

Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 

Pittsburgh, PA, USA; 3Department of Nursing and Obstetrics, 

Division of Health Sciences and Engineering, University of 

Guanajuato, Mexico; 4EPIUnit, Institute of Public Health, 

University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 5Department of Community 

Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kaduna State University, 

Kaduna, Nigeria; 6Institute of Internal Medicine, Novosibirsk, 

Russian Federation; 7Center for Innovative Antimicrobial 

Therapy School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 

Pittsburgh, PA, USA; 8Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, 

TN, USA 

Editorial 

The history of the first banana republic begins 

with the introduction of the banana to the US markets in 

1870, when bananas were brought from Jamaica and 

sold in Boston at a 1,000 percent profit.
1
 Not long after 

the banana’s introduction, this novel nutritious tropical 

fruit became much cheaper than the locally grown 

fruits. The global appetite for bananas lead Jamaica, as 

well as several other Caribbean countries, to reinvent 

their economies to those almost solely dependent on the 

banana production by the end of the 19
th

 century.
2
 The 

term “banana republic” was introduced by American 

writer O’Henry to describe the fictional Republic of 

Anchuria in the book Cabbages and Kings (1904),
3
 a 

collection of short stories inspired by his experiences in 

Honduras at the turn of the 20
th

 century. Global demand 

for bananas during that time period led to several 

international fruit companies controlling the road, rail, 

and port infrastructure of Honduras. Depending largely 

on banana exports, economies of countries cultivating 

the precious crop became fragile, vulnerable, unstable, 

and much dependent on foreign influence.
4
 Since the 

times of O’Henry, “banana republic” or “banana state” 

became a political science term for unstable economies 

that are largely dependent on exporting a 

limitedresource product such as bananas. 

Though the times of the first banana republics 

have long passed, the concept has not lost its validity in 

modern times. Economies of many developing countries 

around the world are still dependent on exporting a 

limited resource raw products to wealthier states.
5
 It is 

not uncommon for the raw product exported by the 

developing country to be transformed into a commercial 

commodity in the developed country, and subsequently 

imported back to the developing country as a new 

commercial product.
6
   

However, the term transcends beyond the fields 

of economics or political science. As scientists, we are 

no foreigners to the banana republic concept, with 

Petsko suggesting that the concept may be relevant to 

the biological research.
7
 Scientific data produced around 

the world in forms of databases, laboratory experiments, 

publications, reports, policies, etc., can be considered as 

exchange products that can be transported and 

cultivated from country to country.
8
 Just like fruit 

producers can be enticed to produce and export one 

agricultural product that is in high demand; scientists 

can be tempted to focus on one research topic, for 

example, Zika, HIV/AIDS, or malaria. The reality is 

that just like the businessmen, scientists rely on income 

from local and global funding agencies to “cultivate” 

their scientific products. Sadly, in many developing 

countries, relying on local research resources is not 

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CENTRAL ASIAN JOURNAL OF GLOBAL HEALTH 

 

 

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always enough to produce quality research and this is 

where international sponsors and collaborators play a 

huge supporting role. International sponsors, funding 

agencies, philanthropists, etc. contribute tremendously 

to health research and improvement in both developed 

and developing world.
9
 For example, the Gates 

foundation funded much needed polio, HIV, and 

malaria prevention programs on the African continent.
10

 

Similarly, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the 

US funds a number of efforts in the area of infectious 

disease in Africa. While it is wonderful for the 

developing countries to get this financial aid to promote 

their research, the potential pitfall is that some of the 

health needs of these countries (such as chronic disease) 

may get overshadowed and not receive much needed 

support.  

For example, out of the 100 recently funded 

NIH awards targeting Africa, close to 60% are 

associated with infectious diseases, such as HIV, 

tuberculosis, and malaria.
11

 The remaining grants are 

aimed maternal and child health, education, and 

nutrition and not necessarily chronic diseases, which are 

the key cause of age related morbidity in the majority of 

African countries.
12

 NIH funds, as well as funds from 

other agencies, provided for conducting research in the 

developing world are really important, as they not only 

support research but also improve laboratory 

infrastructures (as applicable) and establish training 

programs for the researchers in the developing world.
11

 

Without such support, many important discoveries 

would not be possible. On the other hand, relying 

heavily on foreign aid in supporting research may be 

limiting scientific diversity in the developing world by 

focusing the research on a relatively small group of 

specific research topics.  

For example, with Zika, NIH supported  a 

national scientific research organization linked to the 

Brazilian Ministry of Health, to conduct a multi-country 

study to evaluate the magnitude of health risks that Zika 

virus infection poses to pregnant women and their 

developing fetuses and infants.
13

 While Zika is a very 

important disease to investigate, these particular funding 

mechanisms potentially encourages study sites in Puerto 

Rico, Brazil, Colombia, and other areas that are 

experiencing active local transmission of the virus to 

depend on NIH to conduct a very specific line of 

infectious disease research. On one hand, research 

infrastructure of countries affected by Zika will benefit 

from these resources. On the other hand, the research 

priorities of these developing regions are potentially 

determined not by local policy makers or researchers, 

but by funding agencies of the developed world.   

As a consequence, what we are observing is 

that the dependence on much needed foreign grants to 

investigate major public health concerns in the 

developing world establishes the concept of Scientific 

Banana Republic. A Scientific Banana Republic is a 

country that is very limited in the kind of biomedical (or 

scientific) research it can do, due to mostly focusing on 

producing and exporting raw research data, 

predominantly in the various fields of infectious 

diseases. This concept is related to a well published 

concept of Scientific Imperialism and Safari Research, 

where science may be dominated by the scientific 

interests of developed countries. Table 1 reviews 

similarities between agricultural and scientific banana 

states.
14

   

 

Table 1. Agricultural banana state vs. scientific banana 

state 

 

Similarly, if we explore scientific productivity 

in Africa in the form of scientific publications, we see 

that publication rate follows funding areas very closely. 

If we explore the top 100 research articles recently 

produced by the African continent (using Web of 

Science), we can see that a large portion (35%) of these 

articles focus on infectious diseases especially 

HIV/AIDS. Moreover, scientists from these countries 

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rely heavily on international collaborations to publish 

their results instead of collaborating with local 

institutions.
15

 As a result, such countries produce “raw” 

scientific product, which is oftentimes transformed into 

“final product” (published research) by scientists in 

developed countries.
16

 Increasing research collaboration 

between industrialized and developing countries also 

raised concerns about ethical review process of the US 

and international ethics review boards. A survey of 

health researchers from developing and developed 

countries suggested a desire for focused capacity 

development in supporting local ethical review of 

research with effective implementation of culturally 

appropriate studies in the developing world.
17

  

Globalization and its consequences have many 

implications for health locally and globally. The concept 

of global health has become extremely popular in the 

past two decades, as the global thirst for knowledge on 

old diseases and newly emerging infections is 

increasing. New global health degrees and certificate 

programs open each day in US schools and around the 

world. Global health is becoming increasingly more 

interesting to public health and medical workers, 

especially with the Zika virus in Brazil, the continued 

HIV epidemic along with outbreaks of Ebola in sub-

Saharan Africa, and the global threat from malaria. 

Scientists in countries, oftentimes impoverished, that are 

affected by these diseases obtain international funds to 

explore these problems and share this knowledge with 

the rest of the world. Is this good or bad? 

Indeed, HIV and malaria are problematic for 

many African countries causing many preventable 

deaths. Despite the fact that infectious diseases are 

extremely important problems that should be 

investigated, analysis of top causes of deaths for 

countries with a high HIV burden such as South Africa 

and Zimbabwe reveal that chronic diseases such as 

stroke and cardiovascular disease are found in the top 5 

leading causes of death. In addition, trauma associated 

deaths are very important in the developing countries, 

leading to the “triple burden of disease” commonly 

experienced by developing countries undergoing 

epidemiologic transition.
18

 Thus, exploration of chronic 

diseases and trauma in the developing world is very 

important and relevant to improving health locally and 

globally. The focus on infectious disease in the 

developing world, without taking into account chronic 

disease and trauma may not comprehensively address 

the health challenges of the 21
st
 century. In political 

science, we learned to recognize the dangers of 

agricultural banana states. We would like to argue that 

in the 21
st
 century, it is time for us to recognize the 

problems potentially associated with scientific banana 

republics.  

There are several possible solutions to the 

problems identified above. One of the common myths 

associated with healthcare in developing countries is 

that that their healthcare systems are not equipped to 

handle the triple burden of disease. However, numerous 

examples demonstrate how by using grassroots 

approaches and relying on local inexpensive public 

health interventions, public health officials in the 

developing countries were able to make significant 

progress by using local resources.
19,20

 Thus, mobilizing 

existing resources to improve local cost effective and 

culturally appropriate interventions is one of the best 

solutions to improving “local” health. Local resources 

can be shared through global networks, such as the 

Supercourse (www.pitt.edu/~super1) or the Research 

Methods Library of Alexandria 

(http://ssc.bibalex.org/helpdesk/introduction.jsf), both of 

which help investigators with research methods, 

statistical analysis education, and publications. New 

journals, such as the Central Asian Journal of Global 

Health (http://cajgh.pitt.edu/), target publications from 

scientists in under-served countries by providing 

mentorship and guidance to authors who may have 

difficulties in publishing their research findings in 

English speaking journals. It is important for 

governments of developing countries to allocate more 

funds for public health. It is also important to encourage 

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discussion between policy makers in developing and 

developed countries to ensure that global health 

priorities fit the local health priorities when it comes to 

funding from international funding agencies. It may also 

make sense to identify and actively engage local 

stakeholders in identifying ways to improve scientific 

productivity in the developing world. Local 

stakeholders, such as medical doctors, nurses, university 

researchers, and community representatives, may 

represent the voices of people that are not typically 

represented in the policy making process. We would 

like to conclude this editorial by pointing out that 

scientific banana republics may be good for the 

scientific infrastructure of developing countries, as 

research may not be possible without foreign support. 

At the same time, we would like to increase awareness 

of this concept, as without recognizing such concept it 

may not be possible to effectively address the triple 

burden of disease in the developing world.  

References 

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7. Petsko GA. Banana republic. Genome Biology. 

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science. Science. 2001;292(5517):641-642. 

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http://www.gatesfoundation.org/. Accessed July 15, 2016. 

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https://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. Accessed June 30, 

2016. 

12. de-Graft Aikins A, Unwin N, Agyemang C, Allotey P, 

Campbell C, Arhinful D. Tackling Africa's chronic disease 

burden: from the local to the global. Globalization and health. 

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13. NIH launches large study of pregnant women in areas 

affected by Zika virus.  https://www.nih.gov/news-

events/news-releases/nih-launches-large-study-pregnant-

women-areas-affected-zika-virus. Accessed July 15, 2016. 

14. Acosta-Cazares B, Browne E, LaPorte RE, et al. Scientific 

colonialism and safari research. Clinical Medicine and Health 

Research, January. 2000;11. 

15. Dahdouh-Guebas F, Ahimbisibwe J, Van Moll R, Koedam 

N. Neo-colonial science by the most industrialised upon the 

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18. Santosa A, Wall S, Fottrell E, Hogberg U, Byass P. The 

development and experience of epidemiological transition 

theory over four decades: a systematic review. Global health 

action. 2014;7:23574. 

19. Frost LJ, Reich M. Access: how do good health 

technologies get to poor people in poor countries? : 

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Table 1. Agricultural banana state vs. scientific banana state 

Characteristic Agricultural banana republic Scientific banana republic 

Single resource product 

Raw material export 

Banana, orange, and raw 
materials exported at low prices 

Raw data oftentimes sent to be analyzed at 
Western institutions 

Unstable government 

Stratification of social classes 

Oligarchy 

Large income gaps between 
people of different classes 

Excessive power in the hands of scientific 
leaders (deans, chairs, etc) 

Difficulties in climbing academic ladder for 
junior scientists 

Foreign entities supporting 
infrastructure 

Foreign fruit companies 
supporting railroads and other 
infrastructure in traditional 
banana states to support 
agricultural infrastructure 

Foreign funding agencies supporting 
research, laboratory and other infrastructure 
for institutions and groups focusing on one 
or several types of research questions, 
mostly related to infectious disease  

Economy dominated by foreign 
interest 

Economy dominated by 
international fruit companies 

Research topics “suggested” by 
international funding agencies in the form 
of requests for applications on specific 
topics 

 

 

 

 

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