ABSTRACT
The Bono are indigenous to their relative area of occupation as early as the fifth century CE and only the Bono of Takyiman and Wankyi (Wenchi) claim to be autochthonous (Effah-Gyamfi 1979a, 177; 1979b, 199).1 In fact, the term bɔno (bɔ-create; no-the) speaks to assertions of being pioneers in occupying their present location, which is closely linked to the region of Bono antiquity.2 According to Bono tradition, the Bono were led by Bonohene Nana Asaman from Amowi, a subterranean cavern adjoining large rock shelters and occupied as early as the fifth century CE, to Yɛfri and then Manso after the collapse of the Amowi cavern (Effah-Gyamfi 1979, 192; Effah-Gyamfi 1979b, 173, 178; Warren 1975, 2; Meyerowitz 1956, 118).3 The Amowi rock shelter is located near the town of Pinihi in the Bono-Nkoransa indigenous settlement.4 The Kontihene (ko-war, fighting; ɛti-head; ɔhene-male leader) remained at Yɛfri and was left in charge of the area as those families who left for Manso settled in different parts of the emergent Bono region under the leadership of an elder. Though the
precise historical time is unclear, the expansion of the territory began as the families, towns and villages increased soon after Bono-Manso was settled. The Bonohene ensured that people were also settled at strategic points as a way to secure the frontiers of Bonoman (Bono nation). The Bono region is ideally situated for market establishments and the Manso-Takyiman area is a transition zone between the forest and savanna area where much of the Mande trade between the Sudanic nations and the Guinea coast took place (Posnansky 1987, 21; Arhin 1979, 11; Warren 1975, 3). Takyiman was a major area between Bighu, a significant trading town, and Kwaman, which later developed as Kumase. Bighu and Bono-Manso, the capital of Bonoman, were positioned on the northern limits of the forest where routes from the forest to the Bighu area branched off from the one going to the northeast into Hausaland (Effah-Gyamfi 1979b, 180).
