Banana Point

Banana Point (Pointe de Banana) is a peninsula at the mouth of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I was looking at the area on Google Maps when I found this image.

Image by local guide Fabrice Kaj

What is this map? Where does it reside? Does it just sit on the beach, getting wet? Probably not. I did some research but the only thing I could come up with is this Facebook video, showing a local historian and sailor (name not listed as far as I can tell, though he is referred to as the "library of the Republic" ).

Image via Facebook

My poor translation abilities mean that some of my takeaways from the video may be incorrect. The "bibliotheque" stands at the mouth of the river pointing out the various features of the map and gives a little history and geography of the area.

Image via Facebook

 

 

 

Banana Point is the large crown-like symbol. The map is oriented so south is at the top and looks to Angola. Curiously after a mere 35 kilometers of DRC coastline to the north, you are in Angola again, in the exclave of Cabinda. The Congo River has the third largest discharge and is the deepest river in the world. The flow between Banana Point and Angola is broken into three zones with the middle 2 kilometers representing the river flow out to sea. I believe the video states that the river flows 135 kilometers beyond the mouth into the ocean.

Portuguese sailors knew they were near a large river's mouth when their ship was suddenly pushed to the west by the current.  The islands inland from the mouth are full of mangroves and contained native settlements when colonists took over. The large island marked Bulambemba was taken over and used as a prison by the colonists. Diogo Cão was credited in Europe for having "discovered" the river's mouth in 1482 but, of course, there were millennia of history and knowledge of the river's geography and culture before him.