Banceya

**Banceya** (/ˈbkeɪˈə/ BAHN-cay-ah, officially the **People's Theocratic Republic of the Banceyan Union**(Banaran: *Répobilikan’i Bankaia’oi Samaiubal*; is an Azanesian archipelago country in the Indian Ocean. The capital of the 15-island country, Banara, lies about 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Socotra, Yemen and 735 kilometres east of the closest point on mainland East Africa, in Somalia. Other nearby countries and territories include Oman, Kenya, and Tanzania in the west, and the Azanesian countries of Seychelles, Comoros, Mayotte & Réunion (both regions of France), Madagascar, and Mauritius to the south; as well as the Maldives and Chagos Archipelago to the east. With a registered population of roughly 391.213 - which is slightly above The Bahamas and slightly below the French department of Guadelupe - and with a total land area of 7.594 km2(2.932 sq mi) - which is more than Palestine but less than Abkhazia or Puerto Rico, it has a population density of 51.5 people per km2 - placing it between Guinea or Iran and Cameroon.

Bancaya is a member of the African Union, the Southern African Development Community,  Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations. After proclamation of independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, Bancaya has developed from a largely agricultural society to a market-based diversified economy, with agriculture being supplanted by rapidly rising service and public sectors as well as tourism. From 1957 until 2015, nominal GDP output has increased nearly sixfold and the purchasing power parity nearly fifteenfold.

Today, Bancaya boasts a high nominal per capita GDP for an African/Azanesian nation. It is one of only a handful of countries in Africa with a high Human Development Index. Despite the country's newfound economic prosperity, poverty is non-existent and there is little economic inequality, being the most efficient country in terms of wealth distribution in the world.

## Etymology Edit

Do the multicultural and ancient origins, the etymology of Bancaya is of uncertain origin, however many have attempted - and continue to attempt to come to deduce it. In the notes to his translation of the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*, G.W.B. Huntingford remarks that the name Bancaya/Pankhaia is not solely Greek in origin, but possibly from the Sanskrit बाण [*bana*] (“arrow”) and either  Ancient Greek γῆ [*gê*] or Γαῖα [*ˈɡaɪ.ə*] (“place, land, earth or personification thereof”) or Avestan Persian 𐬔𐬁𐬚𐬁 [*gâta*]or𐬔𐬀𐬌𐬌𐬊 [*ˈɡaɪ.o*] (“place/land” or “life”). Historically, this is what most neighbouring countries still describe Bancaya as in their own names for Bancaya.

Over the years though, alternative more complex etymologies have been suggested, such as the Proto-Austroasiatic *ban*(“pack”) or Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *banua* (land, village, house, country, sky, heaven) and the Proto-Austroasiatic *kaya*(“Force, Wealth or Power”) or Proto-Ongan *kaya*(“mother). So the actual meaning could vary widely between “Land of Arrows”, “Powerful Arrow”, “Powerful House”,“Pack of Mothers”, “Mother Earth”, “Mother Country”, “Land of Life” and “Mother Heaven”. And have own flag