The Bono State (or Bonoman) was one of the earliest Akan polities located in what is today the Bono Region and Bono East Region of Ghana. Archaeological and oral evidence situate its origins at Amowi near Nkoranza, with later expansion to Bono Manso, which became its capital during its formative period. The state played an important role in trade between the forest and savanna zones.[7][8] Bonoman was a trading center connecting merchants across Africa.[9]
According to Takyiman oral traditions, the Bono consider themselves the first organized Akan group to develop in the region, with other Akan states emerging later. This belief is reflected in an Akan expression in which a woman’s firstborn child is referred to as abɔnɔwoo. The name Bono means a pioneer or the first of its kind, and to referred specifically to the ancestors of the Takyiman people.
Another interpretation, connects the name to the Bono word Bɔɔ, meaning “hole.” This version holds that the ancestors of the Takyiman people emerged from a hole and were given the name because they originally lived in rock shelters. The tradition states that the name Bono exclusively refers to the Takyiman people.[14][15] The name of the capital, Bono Manso, translates to ɔman (“nation, town”) and so (“on” or “at”) or “the seat of Bono.”[16] According to Effah Gyamfi, the expression “Bono Manso State” would be tautological. [17] The term Bonoman combines Bono (“the Bono people”) with ɔman (“nation” or “state”), and which means “the Bono nation” or “land of the Bono.”[16]
History
Emergence from Amowi cave
The earliest ancestors of the Bono people originated from a sacred rock-shelter known as Amowi, which was situated near Pinihi in the modern Nkoransa area and had been inhabited since at least the 5th century CE.[18][14][19] The site is remembered as the place from which the first people of the land are said to have emerged and began to farm in the area.[15] From Amowi, the early settlers, led by the ancestral figure named Nana Asaman, moved in short distances to Yɛfri(Yefri) and later to Manso, which became the capital of their state.[1] Excavations at Amowi I, Amowi II, and Bono Manso revealed extended periods of continuous occupation, with pottery remains forming more than 99 percent of all recovered materials. Most ceramics were locally made, but some imported vessels originated from the [Old Banda|Banda]] and Bole regions.[20] More excavations near Bono Manso identified early iron-smelting activities dating to 300 CE at Abam[21] and to the 6th century CE in the surrounding area. Researchers believe the evidence indicates that the Bono of the Bono Manso region had established permanent communities that later developed into a proto-urban settlement.[21][22]
Consolidation and political formation
According to historians Bono Manso was not the earliest of the large villages and towns in the region but it was the first to gain supremacy over all the neighboring settlements through political assimilation.[18] The Bono began consolidating authority through the gradual unification of dispersed towns across the area.[2] Small hunter and farmer camps, known as nnan, evolved into permanent villages that formed the foundations of the state. Early communities like Akumadan and Besedan developed from the camps. Besedan, was established by slaves of a Bono queen to cultivate and care for kola trees.[23] As Bono authority expanded, it absorbed neighboring groups and incorporated them into a centralized administrative structure. The Gyamma people, who originally lived in caves near the first Bono settlements, became custodians of the sacred golden stool called Sika puduo, the principal symbol of Bono unity and kingship. The Dewoman people were also integrated into the political hierarchy and their ruler served in the Bono court.[23]
Trade and Prosperity
According to Adu Boahen, Bonoman rose because there was a need to protect and regulate gold extraction and develop commercial routes linking the forest lands to the Middle Niger.[24] The nearby town of Begho (also known as Nsɔkɔ) emerged as a complementary trading hub where regional goods like gold, kola, ivory, and forest products were exchanged for textiles, salt, and metal goods brought by Wangara merchants.[25] Two early rulers, Ameyaw and Obunumankoma, oversaw Bonoman's territorial expansion and commercial ascendancy in the latter half of the 15th century. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, Bono Manso developed into a major commercial and cultural center. Its commerce was controlled by Bono elites. The population was largely Akan and ethnically homogeneous, and Bono's internal administration maintained direct oversight of trade and craft production.[22] The state's cohesion benefitted from long periods of peace. Disputes (akokoakoko) mentioned in traditions were family quarrels and secessions rather than large scale wars. Until the seventeenth century, Bono's authority remained unchallenged in the region, with subordinate states such as Dewuman and Nyafoman owing allegiance to its king.[26] However, some accounts recall external pressures from rival states such as the Gonja kingdom.[27][28]
Growing decline
The decline of Bonoman was gradual and driven by internal and external factors. Signs of demographic and economic decline began in the 17th century, due to droughts, dynastic instability, and shifting trade networks.[29] As southern Akan states like Akyem, Denkyira, and eventually the Asante Empire secured greater access to coastal markets and European firearms, Bonoman, located inland and lacking direct access to Atlantic trade, was surpassed in regional commerce.[30] Internally, excessive taxation, succession disputes, and elite misconduct contributed to weakening central authority. Oral histories collected from Bono informants describe widespread discontent under Ameyaw Kwakye I, the last Bonohene. He abused his power by ignoring religious obligations and raising tax levies.[31] Before the Asante invasion, disillusioned citizens refused to defend the capital, expressing their frustration with the phrase: “Se hene Ameyaw anya ne ko a onko nhye” ("If king Ameyaw has got his war, let him fight it all").[32]
Bono's prosperity and mineral wealth attracted Asante expansion. Documentary sources date the invasion to 1722–1723 AD. A letter from the Dutch West India Company in 1724 described Asante defeating “a district three times stronger” through treachery. The Kitab Ghunja notes "Bawo's (Bafo Pim) attack on Takyiman" in 1722/23.[33] The Bono king and queen were captured and taken to Kumasi, and Bono craftsmen were absorbed into Asante workshops, where they taught their arts to the Asante.[34] Much of Bono territory was incorporated into the Nkoransa state under Baffo Pim, while Takyiman, originally a subordinate village, became the new seat of Bono's surviving royal line.[35] The royal lineage was later re-established in Takyiman under Asante suzerainty by 1740.[36] Attempts to restore the old state failed, and relations with Asante and Nkoransa remained strained thereafter. Refugees from Bono moved northwest where they were integrated into Gyaman, while others regrouped in Dormaa, Nkoranza, and Berekum.[37]Techiman, as successor to Bono-Manso, preserved many of the surviving traditions.
Divisions
In its height Bono's territories bordered Bonduku and Banda to the west, Gonja and Yendi to the north, Mampong and Offinso to the south, and Kete-Krakye to the east.[38] Effah-Gyamfi observed that Bono towns, were culturally homogeneous Akan communities rather than ethnically mixed trading colonies compared to Begho and Wenchi. The capital was a royal residence, market centre, and ritual hub.[39] The sites were described in oral tradition as “the town with one-hundred-and-seventy-seven streets.” Beneath the capital were provincial centers like Takyiman, Amoman, and Dewoman, with each said to have “seventy-seven streets.” The subordinate town were called krom like Kramokrom and Forikrom, while nkuraa villages were Akyemhatae and Besedan which specialized agricultural or craft functions.[40]
Bono Manso
Bono Manso (literally "great town of Bono") was the capital of Bonoman and a major trading hub. It was located south of the Black Volta River and was a key node in the Trans-Saharan trade, connecting the Akan goldfields to major Sahelian markets like Djenné and Timbuktu. Bono Manso traded gold, kola nuts, salt, leather, and cloth. According to Effah Gyamfi, the town was already settled by the 13th century and was a commercial and ritual center by the 14th and 15th centuries.[41] It covered an area of between 150 and 230 hectares and supported a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants, based on architectural remains and settlement density estimates.[42] Its strategic location near the Tano River placed it at the southernmost range of safe caravan travel, where the tsetse fly made pack animal transport unviable.[43]
Kranka Dada
Kranka Dada was a village settlement northeast of Bono Manso. It played an essential role in Bono Manso's political and economic systems. Excavations conducted between 2009 and 2012 uncovered household remains, ritual features, and long-distance trade artifacts.[44] The site consisted of residential mounds occupied from the late 13th to the Asante Empire conquest in 1723.[45] According to Anne Compton, it contained wattle-and-daub structures, granaries, iron-smelting debris, and ceremonial hearths. It had locally made artifacts like brass fragments, glass beads, imported ceramics, and terracotta rasps.[46] Kranka Dada functioned as a satellite settlement, supplying agricultural produce, labor, and ritual expertise to the capital. Compton places it within a four-tiered settlement hierarchy, reflecting the integration of smaller communities into centralized Bono administration.[42] Oral traditions recall shrine priestess that still remained in the area after the town's collapse.[32]
Begho
Begho (also Bighu, Bitu, Bew, or Nsokɔ) was a medieval market town south of the Black Volta in the forest–savanna transition zone.[47] It served as a cultural and linguistic bridge between Akan and Mande societies. Although not politically subordinate to the Bonohene,[48] Begho was governed by an Akan elite over a multiethnic population, including a substantial Muslim Wangara merchant community.[49][50]
Numerous Akan language terms for trade and status like kramo (Muslim), oponko (horse), gyata (lion), and adaka (box), derive from Mandé languages.[51] Begho emerged as an entrepôt for northern caravans beginning around 1100 AD. Goods included ivory, salt, leather, gold, kola nuts, cloth, and copper alloys.[52][53]Begho had an estimated population exceeding 12,000 inhabitants during the 15th century, comparable to major Sahelian cities.[54] As Bono Manso population was estimated around 5000 and other areas thereafter, the inclusive total population of the state depicted it as a highly developed pre-colonial African center.
Islamic sources claim the Mali Empire launched a punitive expedition against Begho in the mid-16th century after disruptions in the gold trade.[55] While these accounts suggest temporary Mande political influence, oral traditions assert that the invaders were repelled,[56] and that Begho's internal governance persisted uninterrupted.[57] Excavations at Begho uncovered walled structures, iron-smelting furnaces, pottery, and smoking pipes, dating from 1350 to 1750 AD. With an estimated population exceeding 10,000, it was one of southern West Africa's largest urban centers by the time the Portuguese arrived in 1471.[53]
Society
Social structure
Early Bono settlements were organized by streets and quarters rather than by matrilineal clans. Effah Gyamfi believe it was an early form of socialization before the development of the abusua (clan) system.[58] One ancient quarter at Bono Manso, associated with the Dwomoo clan survived in local traditions.[59] In 1929 Rattray recorded that the Bono of Takyiman were “apparently wholly ignorant of these Ashanti and Fanteclan names,” and that instead of identifying by clans such as Oyoko or Agona, they referred to streets or quarters (Abronno) in their towns. Rattray theorized the Bono originally had an older social system based on residence and occupation rather than the abusua clan structure developed among southern Akan groups and spread through Asante influence.[60] Further evidence gathered by Boachie-Ansah explains that the Asante and southern Akan clans were based on animal totems, while the clans of Wenchi and Takyiman were based on quarters where their ancestors first settled. The quarters were named after trees or landmarks rather than lineage groups. According to Boachi-Ansah, the differences indicated that Bono societies were separated from the Akan of southern regions for a long time, and that it was after this separation that the clan system and the semi-military system of government evolved among the Akan of south. Ghana[61]
Specialized quarters
Each level of settlement had designated quarters for craftsmen, traders, and ritual specialists. Blacksmiths (atomfoo) were numerous at Nyafoman, with one hundred and fifty said to have been drafted to the royal court at Bono Manso to supply tools and weapons. Bono artisans were also skilled in crafts like pottery, metalwork, cloth weaving, and blacksmithing.[62] Villages like Akyemhatae guarded the royal gold regalia, Besedan maintained the queen-mother's kola groves, and Akyeremade housed the drummers of Dewoman.[63]
Religion
Sacred authority strengthened the position of the Bonohene, who served as both the political ruler and ritual head of the state.[64] Religious life focused on river deities such as Tano, as well as ancestral reverence for Asaase Yaa and belief in Nyame. These beliefs were closely linked to governance and social organization.[65] Akan religious belief centers on Nyame, who is believed to act through lesser deities known as the abosom. Shrines are generally associated either with forest spirits or with the source of the Tano River, which is regarded as the origin of Tano-related deities. The most important of these, Taa Kora, is worshipped at a rock shrine near Tanoboase, where representatives from other Akan states traditionally offer sacrifices and collect sacred water used in state and ancestral rituals.[66] Bono religious traditions linked to Tano River deities such as Taa Mensa and Taa Kora continue to influence Akan beliefs, including indigenous healing practices led by priests (ɔbosomfoɔ) and spirit mediums (ɔkɔmfoɔ).[67]
Economy
Bono’s economic prosperity was shaped by its location between the forest and savanna zones. The position gave access to both forest and savanna products, such as rice, yams, sorghum, wild game, and the kola nuts (Sterculia acuminata).[68] Located at the southern end of the northwestern trade route from the Middle Niger, Bono was a key exchange point for northern traders who relied on donkeys and horses, animals that could not survive farther south in the dense forest.[69] The region’s rich gold deposits further supported its importance in trade, allowing Bono merchants to act as intermediaries for forest goods traded to northern markets.[68]
Currency
The unit of currency was gold, measured using standardized gold weights. Chiefs and elders regulated the value of commodities by fixing gold quantities corresponding to units such as peredwan, doma, and dwoa.[6]
Reevaluations and debates
Reassessment of Eva Meyerowitz
Dennis M. Warren re-examined the writings of Eva Meyerowitz on the Techiman-Bono (Brong) people and found serious methodological and chronological problems in her reconstruction of Bono history. Meyerowitz had proposed that the Bono-Manso was founded as early as 1295 CE and other scholars regarded teh date as unsupported by evidence.[70] Warren argued that Meyerowitz's precise dating and extensive king lists rested on weak field techniques, linguistic errors, and unverified oral data.[71] He noted that her alleged list of thirty-seven Bono rulers from 1295 to 1950 could not be corroborated by Techiman elders, and that even her informants denied supplying the names she published.[72] Physical checks of the Techiman stool rooms revealed only eight ancestral stools, none dating earlier than the eighteenth century, and no evidence of the “gold-nugget containers” she claimed were used to record reign lengths.[73]
Warren also demonstrated that many of Meyerowitz's names were duplicated under variant spellings, her translations inconsistent, and several chronological sequences impossible. Chiefs she dated to the fifteenth century ruled after the Asante-Bono wars of 1722–1723.[74] He concluded that her data represented isolated statements rather than genuine oral traditions, and that her reconstructions invented “traditions” like the Bono migrating from Timbuktu.[75] According to Warren, the inaccuracies had major effects, since later school textbooks and popular histories repeated Meyerowitz's works, which promoted misinformation about Akan origins.[76] He recommended that Techiman-Bono chronology be re-established only from verifiable 18th- and 19th-century evidence.[77]
Colin Flight also conducted a re-evaluation of Meyerowitz's Bono-Manso chronology using statistical analysis and corroborating Arabic and colonial records.[78] He confirmed that Meyerowitz's fieldwork at Techiman in the 1940s relied heavily on the cooperation of Nana Akumfi Ameyaw III, who sought to use her publications to strengthen Techiman's political position within the Ashanti Confederacy.[79] Flight noted that Meyerowitz's data were based on an alleged ritual system in which each king annually deposited a gold nugget in a brass vessel (kuduo) and each queenmother placed a silver bead or cowry in a decorated pot to record the years of reign.[80] These were reportedly counted in 1945 by Kofi Antubam, Meyerowitz's interpreter, and the results sent to her as numerical data for reconstructing the Bono-Manso dynasty.[81]
Archaeological evidence shows that iron smelting was practiced at Bono Manso by the 3rd century CE and that nearby settlements such as Amowi and Atwetwebooso were occupied well before the rise of the Sahelian empires.[82] Excavations at Bono Manso indicate long-term settlement, farming, and iron production that predate any known influence from northern traders or Sahelian states.[41] Radiocarbon dates from Amowi confirm its early occupation and support oral traditions that identify the site as the sacred place of origin of the Bono.[41]
Oral traditions recorded by Dennis M. Warren trace Bono origins to local sacred sites, especially the Amowi cave, rather than to migration from distant regions.[83] These accounts align with archaeological findings that show early Bono communities developed complex political organization, ironworking, and ceremonial practices rooted in local authority.[41] Studies of the Bono gold economy indicate that key features such as gold-weighing systems and regalia were already established locally before the height of Muslim trade in the region, suggesting that these practices did not originate from northern influence.[84]
During the colonial period, some writers claimed that the Bono people migrated from the Ghana Empire to establish Bonoman. This interpretation became widespread in colonial-era scholarship and early nationalist histories but is not supported by archaeological, linguistic, or oral evidence. Oral traditions from Bono-Takyiman and Begho do not refer to the Ghana Empire and instead emphasize local origins tied to sacred places such as Amowi.[85] Later historical and linguistic research has rejected the migration theory, concluding that the Bono developed locally within the forest and savanna regions of present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast. According to Adu Boahen, there is no evidence for a migration from either the Ghana Empire or the Sahara.[86]
Myth of Mande-Islamic origins
Another recurring misconception is that the Bono state and its institutions were introduced or significantly shaped by Mande-speaking Muslim traders (Wangara or Dyula). Muslim traders did play an important role in the gold trade, they settled in designated quarters in towns like Begho, and did not govern the polity nor introduce its core political or spiritual institutions.[87] While acknowledging the presence of intercultural trade, scholars emphasize that the political authority, kinship systems (abusua), ancestral shrines, and regalia of Bonoman are of indigenous origin, not borrowed from the north.[88] A 2022 study further critiques the “Sahelian diffusionist” framework as a colonial invention. It argues that trade networks have been wrongly equated with political or cultural dominance, noting that Muslim traders in Bono cities such as Begho maintained segregated quarters and peripheral roles in local governance.[89]
Modern archaeological and ethnohistorical research has shown that Bonoman developed indigenously in the forest–savanna transition zone of what is now the Bono Region of Ghana, long before the Ghana Empire's decline. Sites like Amowi, Nkukua Buoho, and Bono Manso demonstrate continuous occupation, iron smelting, and complex social organization centuries before the 13th century.[90][91] Notable scholars refute the notion of northern origin, noting that archaeological layers at Bono sites and linguistic data suggest long-term, local development. The consensus is that the Akan states were not the product of Mande or Islamic diffusion, but rather a result of adaptive forest-based societies that evolved over millennia.[92]
Early vs. modern scholarship
Early historians generally viewed Bono as the earliest cradle of Akan civilization, portraying it as the point from which political institutions, trade systems, and cultural traditions of later Akan states originated.[93] Writers such as F. K. Buah, Kwame Arhin, and other mid-century Ghanaian historians reinforced this interpretation, describing Bono as the nucleus from which later Akan states such as Denkyira, Akyem, and Asante emerged through migration and political diffusion.[94][95]This interpretation was supported by oral traditions that emphasized Bono's political seniority and cultural influence, portraying it as the source from which other Akan groups dispersed to establish new states across the forest zone.[94] However, later archaeological and historical studies have revised this view, revealing that Akan societies in the northern and southern forests developed around the same time through shared trade, culture, and religion.[96] This broader perspective positions Bono as one of several early Akan centers, alongside Adansemanso, Asantemanso, and Begho, highlighting a network of interconnected forest communities that collectively shaped the foundations of Akan civilization.[97]
Politically, the Bono legacy survived centuries of Asante domination and colonial rule after Manso's fall. In 1948, Bono-Takyiman formally disengaged from the Asante Confederacy, leading to the formation of the Bono Federation in 1951. The government of Ghana later created the Brong-Ahafo Region and the Brong-Ahafo House of Chiefs in 1960, institutionalizing Bono traditional authority within the modern state.[98] In the late twentieth century, Bono scholars and traditional leaders established the Bonoman Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BRCIK) in Takyiman to document, preserve, and promote Bono medicinal practices, oral traditions, and cosmological knowledge. The center represents a continuation of the intellectual and cultural heritage of Bonoman.[99]
↑Anquandah, James (1993). "Urbanization and State Formation in Ghana During the Iron Age". In Shaw, Thurston; Sinclair, Paul; Andah, Bassey; Okpoko, Alex (eds.). The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge. p.645.
12Goody, Jack (1964). "The Mande and the Akan Hinterland". In Vansina, J.; Mauny, R.; Thomas, L. V. (eds.). The Historian in Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University. pp.192–218.
↑Odoom, K. O. (1979). "A Note on the History of Islam in Brong-Ahafo". In Arhin, Kwame (ed.). A Profile of Brong Kyempim. Institute of Development Studies. Retrieved 24 April 2025.
↑Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku. Traditional History of the Bono State. Legon: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 1979.
↑Dummett, Raymond E. (2005). "Akan and Asante: Farmers, Traders, and the Emergence of Akan States". In Shillington, Kevin (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp.31–33.
Ameyaw, Nana Kwakye (1979). "Bono-Manso and Techiman". In Arhin, Kwame (ed.). A Profile of Brong Kyempim: Essays on the Archaeology, History, Language and Politics of the Brong Peoples of Ghana. Monograph. Institute of Development Studies and Partner Organisations. Retrieved 24 April 2025.
Crossland, L. B. (1989). Pottery from the Begho-B2 site, Ghana. African Occasional Papers. Vol.4. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. ISBN0-919813-84-4.
Boahen, A. Adu (2005). "Akan states: Bono, Denkyira, Wassa, Akyem, Akwamu, Fante, Fifteenth to Seventeenth centuries". In Shillington, Kevin (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp.33–34.
Insoll, Timothy (2003). The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-65702-4.
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