[3] Raponda-Walker was born to a Mpongwe mother,[4] Princesse Agnorogoulè Ikoutou, niece of King Anguilè Louis Dowé,[1] and Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker, a British merchant in Gabon, and member of the Anthropological Society.

The young boy spent a year in England around his fourth birthday but returned to Gabon in 1876 and started at the school of Sainte-Marie in 1877.

[3] From about 1930, Monsignor Walker was one of the few missionaries still studying and documenting Gabonese anthropology, as many foreign researchers had returned to their countries of origin.

He had been stationed at a number of locations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, including Sindara, Libreville, Boutika (Guinée Equatoriale), Donguila, Lambaréné, Saint-Martin (near Mouila) et au Fernan Vaz.

His image appeared on one of the nation's postage stamps in 1981 and the Collège et Lycée Raponda Walker was named in his honour.