Bono State Bonoman
12th century
Capital	Bono Manso
Common languages	Bono Twi
Religion	Bono Ancestral worship and spirituality
Government	Monarchy
History
• Established	12th century
• Incorporated to form BritishAshanti Crown Colony	1935
• Dissolved intoGhana	1957
• RenamedBrong-Ahafo	1959
Currency	Gold dust,cowries and (Salt,copper)
Succeeded by Techiman Denkyira Akwamu Ashanti Empire
Today part of	Ghana Ivory Coast

Bono State (orBonoman) was a trading state created by theBono people, located in what is now southernGhana. Bonoman was a medievalAkan state that stretched across the modern Ghanaian regions ofBono,Bono East andAhafo (respectively named after theBono andAhafo peoples) and theEastern Ivory Coast.^[1] It is generally accepted as the origin of the subgroups of the Akan people who migrated out of the state at various times to create new Akan states in search of gold. The gold trade, which started to boom in Bonoman as early as the 14th century, led to the Akan War, as well as increased power and wealth in the region, beginning in theMiddle Ages.^[2]

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The origin of the Akan people of Bonoman was said to be further north in what is now called theSahel or the thenGhana Empire whenBono natives wanted to remain with their traditional form ofBono ancestral worship and spirituality, those Akans that disagreed and fought wars againstIslam, migrated south of theSahara, in present-day Ghana.^[2][3] Bonoman's first two kings, Ameyaw and Obunumankoma oversaw the kingdom's expansion and rapid development. The kingdom grew wealthy controlling the trade routes linking the Akan goldfields to theSahel.^[4]

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The fall of Bono state occurred during the rise of more Akan nations, especially the exodus of various subgroups ofAkans from the Bono state. This is where a majority of Akan dialects of Ivory Coast migrated west of Ghana. Several factors weakened this state, including conflicts among the leadership, conflicts due to taxation, and no direct access to the coast ofGold Coast, where trade was helping many Akan states have more influence.^[2][5]

Akan people
Culture Music Art Languages Mythology
v t e

Bono Manso (literally "on the state of Bono") sometimes known as Bono Manso or Mansu was a trading area in the medieval state of Bonoman, and a major trading centre in what is now predominantlyBono East region. Located just south of theBlack Volta river at the transitional zone between savanna and forest, the town was frequented by caravans fromDjenné andTimbuktu as part of theTrans-Saharan trade. Goods traded includedkola nuts,salt,leather, andgold; gold was the most important trading good of the area, starting in the mid-14th century.^[2][5][6][7]

Begho (alsoBighu orBitu; calledBew andNsokɔ by the Akan)^[8] was a medievaltrading town located just south of theBlack Volta at the transitional zone between the forest and savanna north-westernBrong-Ahafo. The town, like Bono-Manso, was of considerable importance as anentrepot  frequented by northern caravans fromMali Empire from around 1100 AD. Goods traded includedivory,salt, leather, gold,kola nuts, cloth, andcopper alloys.^[6][9]

Excavations have laid bare walled structures dated between 1350 and 1750 AD, as well aspottery of all kinds,smoking pipes, and evidence of ironsmelting. With a probable population of over 10 000, Begho was one of the largest towns in the southern part ofWest Africa at the time of the arrival of thePortuguese in 1471.^[9]

TheMalian king occupied Bighu in the mid-sixteenth century as a "perceived failure of theBighu Juula to maintain supplies of gold," according to Bakewell. "As a result of the occupation of Bighu it seems clear that the Malian king gained access for a time to that part of the Akan gold trade which theWangara were able to control." Bakewell also notes, "the site of the abandoned town of Bighu, or Bitu, in the present-dayGhana...lies near the present village of Hani."^{[10]18,30–31}

Bonduku was another trading center within the empire of Bonoman. It gave birth to the state ofGyaman also spelled Jamang Kingdom which was particularly famous in the production of cotton. The state existed from 1450 to 1895 and was located in what is nowGhana andCôte d'Ivoire.^[5]

Based on excavations,carbon datings and local oral traditions, Effah-Gyamfi (1985) postulated three distinct urban phases. According to him, in the early phase (thirteenth to the fifteenth century) the urban center was relatively small, and the towns were populated by thousands of people, not all living in the urban center. Buildings were made ofdaubed wattle. Painted pottery of this period was found distributed within a radius of 3.3 km.

In the second phase, the 16th to the 17th century, the urban centers were larger, consisting mainly of evenly distributed houses and a nuclearmarket center. Many indications of participation in long-distance trade, such as imported glass beads and mica coated pottery, stem from this period.^[7][2]

Various aspects of Akan culture stem from the Bono state, including the umbrella used for the kings, the swords of the nation, the stools, goldsmithing, blacksmithing, Kente Cloth weaving, the famous adinkra symbols and goldweighing.^[5]

• List of rulers of the Akan state of Bono-Tekyiman

• Anquandah, James (2002). "Ghana: early towns & the development of urban culture: an archaeological view". InAdande, Alexis B. A.; Arinze, Emmanuel (eds.).Museums & urban culture in West Africa. Oxford: James Currey. pp. 9–16.ISBN 0-85255-276-9.
• Crossland, L. B. (1989).Pottery from the Begho-B2 site, Ghana. African occasional papers. Vol. 4. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.ISBN 0-919813-84-4.
• Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1987). "Archaeology and the study of early African towns: the West African case, especially Ghana".West African Journal of Archaeology.17:229–241.
• Goody, 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.
• Insoll, Timothy (2003).The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-65702-4.
• Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1979),Traditional history of the Bono State Legon:Institute of African Studies,University of Ghana.
• Meyerowitz, Eva L.R. (1949), "Bono-Mansu, the earliest centre of civilisation in the Gold Coast",Proceedings of the III International West African Conference, 118–120.

• Akan
• History of Ghana
• Archaeology of West Africa

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