Bono state  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, Bono East and Ahafo region's respectively named after the (Bono 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. The origin of the Akan people of Bonoman was said to be further north in what is now called the Sahel or the then Ghana Empire when Bono natives wanted to remain with their traditional form of Bono ancestral worship and spirituality, those Akans that disagreed with Islam, migrated south of the Sahara, in present day Ghana  Bono Manso [literally "On the state of Bono"]) sometimes known as Bono Mansu was a trading area in the ancient state of Bonoman, and a major trading centre in what is now predominantly Bono East region. Located just south of the Black Volta river at the transitional zone between savanna and forest, the town was frequented by caravans from Djenné and Timbuktu as part of the Trans-Saharan trade. Goods traded included kola nuts, salt, leather, and gold; gold was the most important trading good of the area, starting in the mid-14th century. Begho (also "Bighu" or "Bitu"; called "Bew" and "Nsokɔ" by the Akan) was an ancient trading town located just south of the Black Volta 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 from around 1100 AD. Goods traded included ivory, salt, leather, gold, kola nuts, cloth, and copper alloys. Excavations have laid bare-walled structures dated between 1350 and 1750 AD, as well as pottery of all kinds, smoking pipes, 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.