Banana is a small

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

in the

Kongo Central Kongo Central ( kg, Kongo dia Kati ), formerly Bas-Congo is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Matadi. History At the time of independence, the area now encompassing Kongo Central was part of the ...

province of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast. The port is situated in Banana Creek, an inlet about 1 km wide on the north bank of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

's mouth, separated from the ocean by a spit of land 3 km long and 100 to 400 m wide. The port is located on the creek side of the spit, which shelters it from the ocean. It is about 8 km south-east of

Muanda Moanda or Muanda is a town and territory lying on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the mouth of the Congo River., United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency It is situated in Kongo Central Province ...

to which it is connected by a paved road running along the coast.

Facilities

The port of Banana consists of one wharf of 75 m and depth 5.18 m, with two small cranes for cargo handling, and a few small jetties. The port has an oil terminal 4 km further upriver, to which tankers discharge while at anchor in the creek. The terminal has a quite separate road access east of Muanda. There are no major facilities in Banana apart from the port, since these are provided by the much larger town of Muanda, where the nearest airport is located. There is no rail link. There is also a naval base of the

Navy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

, which is partly maintained with Chinese assistance.

Climate

History

The town was developed as a port in the 19th century, largely as part of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Henry Morton Stanley arrived at Banana in 1879 at the start of an exploratory expedition funded by

Leopold II of Belgium * german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Leopold I of Belgium , mother = Louise of Orléans , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = ...

. Following the

Conference of Berlin The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference (, ) or West Africa Conference (, ), regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence ...

(1884–85) the European powers recognised Léopold's claim to the Congo Basin, and the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself, beginning the period of European colonization. The

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...

(1911) article on the folkloric belief in werewolves noted that "The people of Banana are said to change themselves by magical means, composed of human embryos and other ingredients, but in their leopard form they may do no hurt to mankind under pain of retaining for ever the beast shape."What We Know And Can Agree On: Wikipedia At 20; What does the future hold for the internet's most popular "information ecosystem"?
Simon Garfield, 20/10/2020 Banana was the main Belgian naval base of the Congo until independence in 1960.

Notable people

Mahomet Thomas Phillips Mahomet Thomas Phillips (1 June 1876 – 7 June 1943) was an English-Congolese sculptor and stone carver. His work features in cathedrals and churches in England and beyond, including in a memorial to Edith Cavell in Peterborough Cathedral, and a ...

(1876 - 1943), sculptor and stone mason

References

External links