African Kingdoms

Twifo-Heman (Akan State) (Africa)

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It would seem that Akan people in Africa migrated into the southern edges of the forests of what is now Ghana. They came from a broad band of territory on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Their migration took place around the eleventh century AD, during a period in which the kingdom of Old Ghana was dramatically weakened by a devastating conflict with the Almoravids.

When Old Ghana fell in AD 1237, the trading state of Bonoman (Bono Manso) was established by the Abron people. In various waves, Akan groups migrated away from the increasingly wealthy Bonoman state to found their own settlement areas. By then they already claimed a somewhat nebulous forest state of Adanse as the first Akan kingdom.

Farming prospered, producing wealth in food, and some of the Akan communities in time coalesced into small but fully historical states and minor kingdoms, starting with Twifo-Heman (also recorded as Twifo Hemang) This state formed around 1480 as Twifo (the name of the Twi-speaking Akan people who created it), with Hemang as its capital around sixty-five kilometres to the north-west of Cape Coast, while Akan people were still migrating into the Adanse forest region.

As that settlement expanded southwards into the forest and towards the Gold Coast of today's Ghana, it was the Twifo-Heman state which emerged as one of the key inland gold-producing polities. By the early sixteenth century European sources were familiar with it, and with its early capital at Hemang. European traders noted the high quality of gold which was coming from this region.

Much of the Twifo history has been transmitted through oral tradition, making it unreliable even though it likely has a strong basis in fact. European records are similarly unreliable due to the fact that a strong European presence in the region was at the earliest point of its existence. These tend to mangle the state's name, presenting it as Kuiforo and Cuffroo, plus other variations.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Akwamu 1640-1750 - A Study of the Rise and Fall of a West African Empire, Ivor Willks, 2001, from the acclaimed documentary film series, Africa: A Voyage of Discovery with Basil Davidson, released in 1984, from A Historical Geography of Ghana, Kwamina B Dickson, from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence, Zeinab Badawi (Mariner Books, 2024), and from External Links: Ghana Web, and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Akuapem, and World Statesmen, and A History of Ghana, F K Buah (Macmillan Collection, 1998, available via the Internet Archive), and Twifoman.)

c.1480

A Twi-speaking group of Akan, the Twifo, have migrated away from the gold-rich state of Bono to settle for a time in Adanse before establishing around 1480 the state of Twifo-Heman.

This is an early inland Akan gold-producing state which has Hemang as its early capital under the Abrade royal clan. The 'Twifo Road' gradually develops into the seventeenth century to link Cape Coast to Twifo-Heman, thereby serving as a key route for gold and trade tolls.

Akan people - photographed here around the beginning of the twentieth century - migrated into regions of modern Ghana from around the eleventh century AD, but probably in smaller family groups rather than as a single mass movement of people

fl c.1480 - 1500

Akan founder of Twifo-Heman as a state.

c.1500 - 1505

Twifo tradition states that factors which had necessitated their recent migration away from Bono had included the search for fertile lands since most of the Twifo are farmers. They are also searching for peace and security, and for fresh markets and trade since many Twifo are finding success in gold trading.

Now that the Twifo have founded their new settlement of Twifo-Heman, they send a message to the rest of the Aduana group which is headed by Nana Agyen Kokobo of Akwamu, calling for them to join the Twifo at their new capital of Kumkumso (close to today's Twifo Hemang).

c.1505 - 1520

First ruler according to oral tradition. Ruler of Akwamu.

c.1505

The early Akwamu people are consolidating their position in the forest zone after having joined Hemang but seemingly also settling apart from that Twifo location. Twifo-Heman has a head start on them in terms of organisation, and more wealth to fund its growth. It seemingly dominates Akwamu in its early days.

This Akan terracotta memorial head was crafted in the eighteenth century in the traditional Twifo-Heman region, and was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

fl c.1520s

Second ruler according to oral tradition.

fl c.1540s?

Third ruler according to oral tradition.

fl c.1570s?

Fourth ruler according to oral tradition.

c.1580 - 1595

Fifth ruler according to oral tradition. King of Akwamu.

c.1580s

Otumfuo Asare is claimed by oral tradition as the fifth king of Twifo-Heman, but also as the founder of Akwamu (which already exists as a state even if it remains minor and unimportant up to this point). He departs from Twifo-Heman following a successional dispute, leaving the state weakened. The Twifo people soon become vassals of Akwamu and then Denkyira, followed later by Asante.

People of the Akwamu state photographed during the early or mid-twentieth century, perhaps around the time of the formation of Ghana, by which time they had formed part of the Asante state for about two hundred years

1658 - 1659

The people of Twifo-Heman fight wars against the state of Assin which disrupts regional commerce. The Twifo-Heman are clearly affected by these wars as they soon become dominated by Denkyira, which dominates the Pra basin near Ghana's modern coast.

late 1600s

By the mid-1600s a patchwork of Akan communities have grown into minor states, one of which is the Asante precursor state of Kwaaman. The most powerful of these states is Denkyira, which has the richest gold mines in the forest after conquering Twifo, Eguafo, and Komenda. Denkyira's great wealth means that it controls the local economy and slave trade.

Denkyira's main centre of interest and occupation was around the coastal region of what later became Ashantiland (shown here in the nineteenth century), which later developed into the Gold Coast area, close to modern Ivory Coast but still within Ghana's borders

fl 1700

A Tiwfo ruler according to oral tradition. Vassal of Denkyira.

c.1701

Denkyira's Akan opponents have formed a coalition which now destroys it, with the primarily leader of the coalition being Osei Tutu of Kwaaman. The way is clear for him to create the more powerful kingdom of Asante to dominate most of the Akan states.

The fractured and diminished Twifo people spread out to settle - at least in part - in their modern location on both sides of the River Pra in Ghana's Central Region. There they meet three groups of settlers: the Mokwaa, Heman, and Afutuakwa.

The traditions of these people claim that they are descendants of the Etsii who today are scattered across various areas of the Central Region, having also encountered the early Fante following their own migration from the north.

The British probably met up with the Asante leaders at an early point in the expansion of Gold Coast, although this 1819 illustrates a meeting of its own time, as confirmed by the headgear worn by the British soldiers at the back