Whilst perusing a vocabulaire of the Kikongo language by Louis Narcisse Baudry des Lozières, we realized something that should have been obvious to us many years ago. During our obsessive phase with the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez from c. 2008-2011, we noticed the African or Afro-Caribbean influences in the area of Colombia some of his most famous works are set in. Yet we failed to realize the fictional town of Macondo is actually an African word. More precisely, it appears to be one of the Kikongo words for banana. Indeed, Gabo apparently saw the name used for a banana plantation. Makondo or mankondo is apparently the plural form for banana (as in bananas). It is thus an appropriate name for a banana plantation and certainly relevant to Macondo and the history of the banana industry. Also, though we still need to consult a Palenquero dictionary, the word appears to have survived in that language.
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