Kwa

Kwa, in its narrow New Kwa form, is the proposed Niger-Congo branch covering south-eastern Ivory Coast, southern Ghana and central Togo; its name comes from the word for person shared by many languages. Its heart is the Potou-Tano group of the Akan, alongside Ga-Dangme and Gbe, though recent classifications transfer Gbe to the Volta-Niger branch.

The Bono state grew rich carrying gold and kola north through Begho. In 1701 the Asante ruler Osei Tutu, with his adviser Okomfo Anokye and the Golden Stool as the symbol of union, defeated Denkyira and built the Ashanti Empire from Kumasi, overrunning Bono in 1723.

East of the Volta the Gbe peoples formed Allada and, about 1600, Dahomey; King Agaja took Allada in 1724 and Whydah in 1727, and the slave trade carried Gbe speech into Caribbean creoles. Dahomey paid tribute to Oyo until 1827.