When Banana Was King looks at a time when Jamaicans battled Americans for control of the billion-dollar banana trade. They battled in boardrooms and battled on wharves with knives and guns over the tasty, strangely shaped fruit. The most controversial of the banana men back then was Jamaican, A.C. Goffe. Love him or hate him, A.C. Goffe was, an observer noted, one of the Jamaicans who "crossed the Frontiers, put Jamaica beyond the pale of the primitive and brought the country into modern trade, commerce and business."