Bono State (or Bonoman) was a trading state created by the Bono people, located in what is now southern Ghana. Bonoman was a medieval Akan kingdom in what is now

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

, Bono East and Ahafo region respectively named after the (

and Ahafo) and Eastern Ivory Coast. It is generally accepted as the origin of the subgroups of the Akan people who migrated out of the state at various times to create new Akan states in search of gold. The gold trade, which started to boom in Bonoman as early in the 12th century, was the genesis of Akan power and wealth in the region, beginning in the Middle Ages.

Origin

The origin of the Akan people of Bonoman was said to be further north in what is now called the

Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...

or the then

Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, ...

when

natives wanted to remain with their traditional form of Bono ancestral worship and spirituality, those Akans that disagreed and fought wars against

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

, migrated south of the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, in present-day Ghana.

Trading centers used by state

Bono Mansa

Bono Mansa iterally "On the state of Bono" sometimes known as Bono Manso or Mansu was a trading area in the medieval state of Bonoman, and a major trading centre in what is now predominantly Bono East region. Located just south of the

Black Volta river The Black Volta or Mouhoun is a river that flows through Burkina Faso for approximately 1,352 km (840 mi) to the White Volta in Dagbon, Ghana, the upper end of Lake Volta. The source of the Black Volta is in the Cascades Region of Burki ...

at the transitional zone between savanna and forest, the town was frequented by caravans from

Djenné Djenné ( Bambara: ߘߖߋߣߣߋ tr. Djenne; also known as Djénné, Jenné and Jenne) is a Songhai people town and an urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. The town is the administrative centre of the Djenné Cercle, on ...

and Timbuktu as part of the Trans-Saharan trade. Goods traded included

kola nut The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola ...

s, salt, leather, and gold; gold was the most important trading good of the area, starting in the mid-14th century.Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1987). "Archaeology and the study of early African towns: the West African case, especially Ghana", ''West African Journal of Archaeology''.Crossland, L. B. (1989). ''Pottery from the Begho-B2 site, Ghana''. African occasional papers. 4. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. .Meyerowitz, Eva L.R. (1949), "Bono-Mansu, the earliest centre of civilisation in the Gold Coast", Proceedings of the III International West African Conference, 118–120.

Begho

Begho (also ''Bighu'' or ''Bitu''; called ''Bew'' and ''Nsokɔ'' by the Akan) was a medieval

trading town Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

located just south of the

Black Volta The Black Volta or Mouhoun is a river that flows through Burkina Faso for approximately 1,352 km (840 mi) to the White Volta in Dagbon, Ghana, the upper end of Lake Volta. The source of the Black Volta is in the Cascades Region of Burki ...

at the transitional zone between the forest and savanna north-western Brong-Ahafo. The town, like Bono-Manso, was of considerable importance as an entrepot frequented by northern caravans from

Mali Empire The Mali Empire ( Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or Manden; ar, مالي, Māl ...

from around 1100 AD. Goods traded included ivory, salt, leather, gold,

s, cloth, and copper alloys.Goody, Jack (1964). "The Mande and the Akan Hinterland". In Vansina, J.; Mauny, R.; Thomas, L. V. (eds.). The Historian in Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University. pp. 192–218. Excavations have laid bare walled structures

dated Date or dates may refer to: *Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner **Group dating *Play date, an ...

between 1350 and 1750 AD, as well as pottery of all kinds,

smoking pipe A smoking pipe is used to inhale the smoke of a burning substance; most common is a tobacco pipe, which can also accommodate almost any other substance. Pipes are commonly made from briar, heather, corn, meerschaum, clay, cherry, glass, porcela ...

s, and evidence of iron smelting. With a probable population of over 10 000, Begho was one of the largest towns in the southern part of West Africa at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese in 1471.
The Malian king occupied Bighu in the mid-sixteenth century as a "perceived failure of the Bighu Juula to maintain supplies of gold," according to Bakewell. "As a result of the occupation of Bighu it seems clear that the Malian king gained access for a time to that part of the Akan gold trade which the Wangara were able to control." Bakewell also notes, "the site of the abandoned town of Bighu, or Bitu, in the present-day Ghana...lies near the present village of Hani.":Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1979), Traditional history of the Bono State Legon:

Institute of African Studies The Institute of African Studies on the Anne Jiagee road on campus of the University of Ghana at Legon is an interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences. It was established by President Kwame Nkrumah in 1962 to encou ...

, University of Ghana.^18,30–31

Bonduku

Bonduku was another trading center within the empire of Bonoman. It gave birth to the state of

Gyaman Gyaman (also spelled Jamang, Gyaaman) was a medieval Akan people state, located in what is now the Bono region of Ghana and Ivory Coast. Gyaman was founded by the Bono people, a branch of the Akan, in the late 15th century. The Bono then proceede ...

also spelled Jamang Kingdom which was particularly famous in the production of cotton. The state existed from 1450 to 1895 and was located in what is now Ghana and

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Structure of towns of Bonoman

Based on excavations, carbon datings and local oral traditions, Effah-Gyamfi (1985) postulated three distinct urban phases. According to him, in the early phase (thirteenth to the fifteenth century) the urban center was relatively small, and the towns were populated by thousands of people, not all living in the urban center. Buildings were made of daubed wattle. Painted pottery of this period was found distributed within a radius of 3.3 km. In the second phase, the 16th to the 17th century, the urban centers were larger, consisting mainly of evenly distributed houses and a nuclear market center. Many indications of participation in long-distance trade, such as imported glass beads and mica coated pottery, stem from this period.

Fall of the Bonoman

The fall of Bono state occurred during the rise of more Akan nations, especially the exodus of various subgroups of Akans from the Bono state. This is where a majority of Akan dialects of Ivory Coast migrated west of Ghana. Several factors weakened this state, including conflicts among the leadership, conflicts due to taxation, and no direct access to the coast of Gold Coast, where trade was helping many Akan states have more influence.

Influence on Akan Culture

Various aspects of Akan culture stem from the Bono state, including the umbrella used for the kings, the swords of the nation, the stools, goldsmithing, blacksmithing, Kente Cloth weaving, the infamous adinkra symbols and goldweighing.Crossland, L. B. (1989). “Pottery from the Begho-B2 site, Ghana”. African occasional papers 4. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. . Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1985), Bono Manso: an archaeological investigation into early Akan urbanism (African occasional papers, no. 2) Calgary: Dept. of Archaeology, University of Calgary Press.