Bána, Bania, Banjo (1874)

[…] a harp with seven strings, called bána, is mentioned as an instrument of the Vei negroes by the missionary S. W. Koelle […]. The Vei negroes dwell north of Liberia in Guinea. The name bania, given in Senegambia to an instrument of the guitar kind, may, perhaps, be identical with the Vei bána, and also with the banjo, which appears to be the Senegambian bania imported by the negro slaves into America. [Engel Catalogue 1874, 151]