Ronko

Full definition of ronko

(plural ronkos)

A traditional knee-length loose-fitting garment worn by chiefs, blacksmiths, warriors, and secret society officials in certain Sierra Leonean tribes, particularly the Limba, Koranko, and Yalunka. Worn by warriors in battle and said to protect them against both natural and supernatural weapons of war.

1986 June 29, Associated Press, "Secret Societies Thriving," Sunday Intelligencer (Doylestown, Pennsylvania), page A-18 http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=26962689:Many campaign posters showed candidates wearing "ronkos," or rust-colored cotton vests bathed in special herbs to guard them against invisible bullets.
1994, Joseph A. Opala, "'Ecstatic Renovation!': Street Art Celebrating Sierra Leone's 1992 Revolution," African Affairs 93(317), 210 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9909(199404)93%3A371%3C195%3A'RSACS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5:The same mural shows a government soldier, called 'Commando Spider', dressed in a ronko, but slaying a rebel, presumably behind enemy lines.
2005 February 9, "Mr Witness", testimony in Special Court for Sierra Leone Case No. SCSL-2004-14-T http://www.sc-sl.org/Transcripts/CDF-020905.pdf, page 14:Their clothes? It was ronkos and the short trousers.
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