Banana, Kiribati

Not to be confused with Banana (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Banana.

Banana is a village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the Archipelago of Line Islands. It is located close to Cassidy International Airport.^{[citation needed]}

Banana
Village
Banana
Coordinates: 1.86666667°N 157.4°W / 1.86666667; -157.4
Country	Kiribati
Local council	Kiritimati
Population  (2010)
• Total	955
Time zone	UTC+14

Name

In 1962, when over 4,000 American servicemen were on the island as part of Operation Dominic, the village became known as Banana for unclear reasons.^{[1][failed verification]}

Demographics

In 2010, Banana was inhabited by 955 people, making it the third most populous of the four villages on the island.^[2] The great majority of the population of Kiritimati as of 1989 lived in the Banana, London, or Poland villages.^[1]

Social media incident

In 2024, a twitter account (@KiribatiGov) which had successfully impersonated the Kiribati government for some time went viral after responding "Fine. You're not invited." to a post making fun of the city's name.^[3][4]

References

1. Scott, Derek A., ed. (1993). "Teeb'aki, Republic of Kiribati" (PDF). A Directory of Wetlands in Oceania (Report). [i] Slimbridge, UK; [ii] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: [i] International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau; [ii] Asian Wetland Bureau. pp. 199–228. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2018.
2. "Report on the Kiribati 2010 Census of Population and Housing" (PDF). August 2012.
3. Dingle, Sarah (2024-02-25). "How a man faked Kiribati government's X account". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
4. "Kiribati's government not responsible for viral post, sorry". France 24. 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2024-08-19.