The village of Manso is located 17 km northeast of Techiman on the Techiman-Kintampo Road. Situated on the site of the capital of the ancient state of Bonoman, founded in the 14th century. It is generally believed that the impetus for founding Bonoman, the first Akan centralized state, was associated with the long-distance gold trade. The capital, referred to as Bono Manso, was, like its latter-day successor, Techiman, a cosmopolitan commercial community that is believed to have been one of the first urban settlement established in this part of West Africa.
Limited archaeological research undertaken at Manso suggests that, at its height in the 16-17th century, the capital covered an area of roughly 230 hectares (2.3 sq km) and supported a population of as many as 10,000 people, making it one of the largest communities in precolonial West Africa. Bonoman was conquered by the young nation of Asante in 1722-23, and the capital of the Bono state later relocated to Techiman.
Bono Manso’s historical importance has recently been exploited by the tourist industry in Ghana. Though there is little evidence supporting the claim, the Bono capital was identified in the early 2000s as the site of a major slave market, and memorial gardens for Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X were built here to commemorate the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
