The site north of Techiman that became the capital of the Bono kingdom until the Asante sack of 1722-1723.
Effah-Gyamfi, who excavated it, found it settled by the thirteenth century and a commercial and ritual centre by the fourteenth and fifteenth, with its great market (Dwabirem) later. On 1 January 1200 there may be a village here or nothing yet. Wikipedia's page says archaeologists date its founding to about 1000, without citing the dates.
Who holds it
- Title
- Not known
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Not known; no ruler attested for 1200.
How things stand that morning
Not pinned: a farming village at most.
Communities
Bono Akan.
Fairs and markets
The Dwabirem market belongs to the later town.
Trade and crafts
Iron smelting in the neighbourhood since the first millennium (Effah-Gyamfi).
Where the sources disagree
- About 1000 (Wikipedia, Bono Manso) against settled by the thirteenth century (Effah-Gyamfi as cited on Wikipedia, Bono state); Meyerowitz's 1295.
Evidence: Excavated site; its earliest dates as reported second-hand.
Primary sources for Akan (Bono country and Begho)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Ife, Benin, Nri, the Yoruba towns and the Akan: archaeology and recorded tradition (no contemporary text; traditions written down from the 1890s). No text of any kind exists for the forest belt in 1200.
Sources and studies
- Bono Manso (Wikipedia)
- Bono state (Wikipedia, citing Effah-Gyamfi 1974, Warren 1976, Ameyaw 1979, Crossland 1989, Compton 2017)
- K. Effah-Gyamfi, Bono Manso: An Archaeological Investigation into Early Akan Urbanism (1985); D. M. Warren, Bibliography and vocabulary of the Akan (Twi-Fante) language (1976) and his Techiman-Bono studies; as cited on Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.