Bono state in the context of "Amowi"

Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated with the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to the east. Ghana covers an area of 239,567 km (92,497 sq mi), spanning diverse ecologies, from coastal savannas to tropical rainforests. With over 35 million inhabitants, Ghana is the thirteenth-most populous country in Africa, and the second-most populous country in West Africa specifically. The capital and largest city is Accra; other significant cities include Tema, Kumasi, Sunyani, Ho, Cape Coast, Techiman, Tamale, Bolga, Wa, and Sekondi-Takoradi.

The earliest kingdoms to emerge in Ghana were Bonoman in the south and the Kingdom of Dagbon in the north, with Bonoman existing in the area during the 11th century. The Asante Empire and other Akan kingdoms in the south emerged over the centuries. Beginning in the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire, followed by other European powers, contested the area for trading rights, until the British ultimately established control of the coast by the 19th century. Following more than a century of colonial resistance, the current borders of the country took shape, encompassing four separate British colonial territories: Gold Coast, Ashanti, the Northern Territories, and British Togoland. These were unified as an independent dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations. On 6 March 1957 Ghana became the first colony in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve sovereignty. Under President Kwame Nkrumah, it became influential in decolonisation efforts and the Pan-African movement.

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.

Manso or Maaso, often referred to as Bono-Manso in historical contexts, was an urban centre of significant religious, political, and economic influence. It was situated on the northern forest savanna zone of Akan realm. Founded c. 1000 CE, it was the capital of the Bono state from the 11th century to 1723. Bono Manso flourished into a prominent and cosmopolitan centre of trade to the Bono state, attracting Muslim Juula from the Mali empire and several merchants across North and West Africa. According to oral traditions, merchants brought textiles, salt, and brass where they traded them for gold, kola, and slaves.

Just like its twin-counterpart Begho, Bono Manso had a huge market called Dwabirem in the southwest direction, linking the sub-Saharan and ultimately European long distance trade. After the Asante destroyed Bono Manso in 1723, Techiman succeeded it. Presently, Bono Manso is a village north of Techiman in Ghana.

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.