Akan

The Akan are Kwa-speaking Tano peoples of the forest and coast of Ghana and Ivory Coast, among them the Bono, Asante and Fante, sharing matrilineal abusua clans and chiefly stools. Asantemanso and like towns were occupied from the ninth century; the early Bono state at Bono Manso sent gold and kola through Begho to Middle Niger Wangara merchants.

From the late 1400s Portuguese, then Dutch and English ships bought Akan gold on the coast, drawing forest states into Atlantic trade; after 1650 firearms reshaped inland politics as Denkyira and Akwamu fought over gold routes.

Around 1695 Osei Tutu and priest Okomfo Anokye united the Kumasi towns under the Golden Stool and in 1701 overthrew Denkyira, opening the Asante empire's way to the sea; Asante armies took Bono in 1722-1723 and dominated the hinterland, while Fante towns formed a coastal confederacy at Mankessim against them. The Asante checked British expansion at Nsamankow in 1824, killing Governor MacCarthy, but were beaten at Katamanso in 1826.