Banana
| Banana | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Coordinates | 6 ° 1 ′ S , 12 ° 24 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Democratic Republic of Congo | ||
| Congo Central | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | CD-BC | ||
Banana is a port city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .
It is located north of the mouth of the Congo on the Atlantic Ocean . About 20 km south of the city is the border with Angola , behind it the Angolan Soyo . The city of Banana is part of the Congo Central administrative unit . It is one of the oldest settlements in the Congo.
In the 19th century, under Belgian rule, the city developed into an important location for the slave trade . The port facilities in particular were of great importance in this context. Until 1960, Banana was one of the main bases of the Belgian Navy.
Banana is well known to philatelists thanks to the pigeon mail line Banana – Boma from 1905. In the 1900s there was a separate pigeon post between Boma, the then capital of the Belgian Congo , and the port city of Banana. At the time, the Congo's telegraph network was still under construction. The first telegraph line Banana - Boma - Léopoldville - Coquilhatville was only partially completed in 1905. The Belgian government therefore decided to set up a provisional pigeon mail line, which existed until the opening of the remaining sections towards the end of the decade.