Akan people in the context of "Nzema people"

The Bono, also known as the Brong or Abron, are an Akan people of central Ghana and northeastern Ivory Coast. They speak the Bono Twi and form one of the largest matrilineal Akan groups. According to Takyiman traditions, the Bono were the first Akan to develop a state, and other Akan states are believed to have emerged later. Oral traditions and archaeological evidence highlight Bono Manso and Begho as major centers of early Akan settlement.” Past historians described Bono as the cradle of the Akan people, with all Akan groups tracing their origins to Bono.Archaeological evidence and modern historians emphasize that Bono-Manso and Begho were among several of the earliest centers of development for the Akan people, serving as major sites of cultural and political formation closely tied to both oral traditions and material evidence.

The Bono became prosperous at Bono state through gold discovery, trade and commerce from neighbouring partners and across Africa. As part of commercial transactions, gold dust were used as currency and gold weights as a measure of value. In 1471 when the first European-Portuguese visited Gold Coast (now Ghana), Bono Manso and Begho were an urban cities in West Africa. Begho at its peak had an estimated population of 15000. Bono Manso on the other hand played a significant role in the Atlantic slave trade and as a result, Africans in Diaspora visit to learn more about their history. The Bono people are mostly located in central part of Ghana and northeastern Ivory Coast.

Akan (/əˈkæn/), or Twi-Fante, is the most widely-spoken language of Ghana, and the principal native language of the Akan people, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana. About 80% of Ghana's population speak Akan as a first or second language, and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers. The Bono dialect is also spoken across the border in Ivory Coast.

Three dialects were developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies: Asante and Akuapem, collectively known as Twi, and Fante. Despite being mutually intelligible, they were inaccessible in written form to speakers of the other standards until the Akan Orthography Committee (AOC)'s development of a common Akan orthography in 1978, based mainly on Akuapem dialect. As the first Akan variety to be used for Bible translation, Akuapem had become the prestige dialect.

Sunyani (/sʌˈŋjəˈeɪ/ ) is a city and the capital of the Sunyani Municipal District and the Bono Region of Ghana. The city is located about 105 miles (169 km) northwest of Kumasi and 300 miles (480 km) away from Accra. It is the sixth-largest city in the country as of the 2010 census, with a population of 75,366 people. Ethnic groups such as the Akan, Northerner, Ewe, and Ga-Adangbe resided in the city along with others. As of 2024, the mayor of the municipality was Hon. Ansu Kumi.

Sunyani's economy is largely agrarian, with the city being known for its ever-growing cocoa bean production. The city is home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sunyani which is under Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi. Sunyani is also home to many educational institutions, such as the Sunyani Technical University and the University of Energy and Natural Resources.

Techiman (Akan: Takyiman) is a city and the capital of the Techiman Metropolitan District and the Bono East Region of Ghana. The city is located about 32 miles (51 km) from Sunyani and about 65 miles (105 km) away from Kumasi. It has a tropical savanna climate, experiencing two wet seasons and a dry season. Techiman has a population of 67,241 as of the 2010 census released by the Ghana Statistical Service. The majority of ethnic groups in the city included the Akan, Bono, Gonja, Dagomba, Sisala, and Mamprusi people. The mayor of the city's metropolitan, as of 2021, is Benjamin Yaw Gyarko.

The city was formally founded in 1740 and officially established as the Bono-Tekyiman state in the 1940s, after the Bono state's capital Bono Manso was taken over in 1723. After a referendum in 2018 was passed with the focus of creating new regions in Ghana, Techiman was selected to be the capital of the newly-created region of the Bono East Region.

Tamale (Dagbani: [ˈtamali]) is the capital city of the Northern Region of Ghana. It is Ghana's third largest city, with a population of 374,744 people (185,051 males and 189,693 females) as of 2021 population census). The city has been ranked as the fastest-growing city in West Africa. Tamale is located in the Kingdom of Dagbon, Ghana's oldest Kingdom.Dagombas are the traditional occupants of it. Other ethnic groups who resides in Tamale are Gonja, Mamprusi and Akan, As of 2025, the Mayor for Tamale is Hon. Abu Takoro.

The city grew from a small village to an important economic center in the Northern Territories after the British had established administrative headquarters in the area. It became the capital of the Northern Region in 1960. The biggest economic sector of Tamale is agriculture, followed by trading, teaching, and manufacturing.

Bolgatanga (Frafra: Bɔlegataŋa), colloquially known as Bolga, is a town and also the capital of the Bolgatanga Municipal and the Upper East Region of Ghana. It shares a border to the north with Burkina Faso. Bolgatanga is 161 km (100 mi) to the north of Tamale. The town lies in the Red Volta Valley (which serves as a major migration route of elephants), with the White Volta and the cliffs of the Gambaga escarpment to the south of the town forming the southern boundary of the Upper East Region. As of 2021, the town has a population of about 142,509 people constituting females (74,659), representing 52.4 % than males (67,850) constituting 47.6 %. Some ethnic groups who lived in large qualities in Bolgatanga are Frafra, Daghati, Akan, Ewe, and Ga-Adangbe. The current mayor of the town is Rex Asanga. The Municipal occupies a land size of 334 Km2 with a population density of 418.7 persons per square kilometer.

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 the development of Akan civilization and trade between the forest and savanna zones. Bonoman was a trading center connecting merchants across Africa.

The state's wealth grew substantially through the control of gold production and trade, with material culture such as goldweights, brassworking, and textiles attesting to its urban complexity. The Akan gold trade to the savanna and beyond had been active since the opening of the Akan goldfields to Juula merchants under the Mali Empire and Songhai Empire from at least the 15th century. Gold from Begho was sent north through Kong and Bobo-Dioulasso, from where it was carried to the Djenné–Timbuktu corridor and across the Sahara. The Bono state was strategically located in the northern forest fringes of the Akan world, within the forest–savanna transition zone south of the Black Volta. This location facilitated frequent caravans from Djenné, Timbuktu, and other trade centers across Sudan and Egypt, making Bono a major commercial hub.

The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: Asanteman), also known as the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Asante Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British, authors than any other indigenous culture of sub-Saharan Africa.

Starting in the late 17th century, the Asante king Osei Tutu (c. 1695 – 1717) and his adviser Okomfo Anokye established the Asante Kingdom, with the Golden Stool of Asante as a sole unifying symbol. Osei Tutu oversaw a massive Asante territorial expansion, building up the army by introducing new organisation and turning a disciplined royal and paramilitary army into an effective fighting machine. In 1701, the Asante army conquered Denkyira, giving the Asante access to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean coastal trade with Europeans, notably the Dutch. The economy of the Asante Empire was mainly based on the trade of gold and agricultural exports as well as slave trading, craft work and trade with markets further north.