Bono Manso in the context of "Bono state"

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.

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.

Begho, also known historically as Nsoko or Insoco, was a city located in the Bono state of Ghana, located just south of its successor community, Hani. Begho was established as a trading entrepôt and cosmopolitan centre linking merchants from across West Africa and North Africa. Operating from the northern forest savanna transition zone, just like Bono Manso, it seized new economic opportunities and cross-cultural interactions through expansion as a commercial hub. Before the Europeans arrival in 1471, Begho was initially contacted by Muslim merchants who spoke Mande from the Mali empire. Outside the town limits, these merchants frequently founded permanent outlying settlements.

By the 17th centuries, the Europeans who fostered key interests in gold and silver trading, harboured displeasures towards the Juula with an attempt to put them out of trade. Begho’s progress was attributed to the proximity of Akan goldfields from which gold reached Djene and Timbuktu as well as other areas.