Bonoman (c. 1295–1723) was the first and most powerful of the Akan states, centered in what is now the Bono and Bono East regions of central Ghana. It is considered the ancestral homeland of the Akan peoples — Asante, Fante, Akwamu, and many others trace their origins to migration out of Bonoman.
The kingdom grew wealthy through control of gold mining and trade, linking forest-zone gold to the trans-Saharan trade networks via the city of Begho. At its height, Bono Manso was one of the great urban centers of medieval West Africa, visited by Portuguese traders as early as 1471.
The Bono were among the earliest Akan to develop the talking drum (fontomfrom) as a royal instrument of power and communication — a tradition that spread with Akan expansion across the Gold Coast. In 1722/23, Asante forces under Opoku Ware I destroyed Bono Manso. The Bono regrouped at Techiman, where their cultural identity endures today.