Roponka

Back to all glossary items

A village in Kafu Bullom chiefdom, north of the Sierra Leone River, where there has been preserved from some indefinite time in the past brass figural castings that local tradition says were given to a chief in Roponka by the Portuguese. More recent research by Ezio Bassani has pointed out their resemblance to a group of ancient brass staves and staff finials called sono from Senegambia, possibly of Malinke origin, that would suggest an African provenance.

  • U.H.Koroma, 'The bronze statuettes of Ro-Ponka', Sierra Leone Studies, XXII, 8, 25.
  • E.Bassani, 'Sono from Guinea Bissau', African Arts, 1979, XII, 4, 44-47.