The high rain forest of the Tano, Bia and Ankobra basins and the coast from the Pra mouth to the Aby lagoon.
No excavated site of the period and no tradition we could check describes it in 1200. The peoples who later held it, the Wassa, Aowin, Sefwi, Nzema, Ahanta and, in the Ivory Coast, the Anyi (Agni) and Abron, are all placed here by later traditions, and several (Nzema, Sefwi, Ahanta) claim Guan roots; the Aowin state that later dominated the south-western forest and the Anyi kingdoms belong to the seventeenth century and after. The forest held rich gold (the Ankobra and Tarkwa reefs, Sefwi and Bibiani), but its working for trade is not shown before the fifteenth century.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village and lineage heads
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Not known: forest villages under their own heads, no outside lord.
Customs
Not known for 1200.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: No dated archaeology or written source for 1200; later traditions only.
On the map: Drawn from the later peoples' lands; who lived here in 1200 is not known.
Sources and studies
- Guan people (Wikipedia)
- Akan people (Wikipedia, citing Shinnie 2005, Ofosu-Mensah 2010, Boaten 1971, Konadu and Campbell 2016, Shumway 2011)
- Researcher's general knowledge of the ethnography and linguistic geography of Ghana and Togo (present-day distributions), used only to place peoples whose 1200 seats are not recorded
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.