Editing Ghana (section)

===Medieval kingdoms===
{{main|Ashanti Empire|Kingdom of Dagbon|Bono state}}
[[File:Guinea from Milner's Atlas.jpg|thumb|An 1850 map showing the [[Akan people|Akan]] [[Kingdom of Ashanti]] within the [[Guinea (region)|Guinea region]] and surrounding regions in West Africa|left]]

The earliest kingdoms to emerge in Ghana were [[Bono state|Bonoman]] in the south and the [[Kingdom of Dagbon]] in the north, with Bonoman existing in the area during the 11th century.<ref name="NP" /><ref name="col">{{cite web |title=Pre-Colonial Period |url=http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/pre-colonial.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123235900/http://ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/pre-colonial.php |archive-date=23 November 2010 |access-date=13 December 2010 |publisher=Ghanaweb.com}}</ref> From the 17th century, different Akan states begun to emerge from what is believed to have been the Bonoman area, mainly based on gold trading.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dennis M. |last=Warren|title=The Techiman-Bono of Ghana: An Ethnography of an Akan Society|publisher= Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company|date= 1975}}</ref> These states included Bonoman (Brong-Ahafo region), [[Adansi]] and [[Asante Empire|Asante]] ([[Ashanti Region]]), [[Denkyira]] ([[Central Region (Ghana)|Western North region]]), [[Mankessim Kingdom]] ([[Western Region (Ghana)|Central region]]), [[Akyem]] and [[Akwamu]] [[Eastern Region (Ghana)|(Eastern region)]].<ref name="col" /><ref>Kwasi Konadu, "Quest for the River, Creation of the Path," in ''The Ghana Reader: History, Culture, Politics'', eds. Kwasi Konadu and Clifford C. Campbell (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016), pp. 30–35.</ref> By the 19th century, the territory of the southern part of Ghana was included in the [[Ashanti Empire|Asante Kingdom]].<ref name="col" /> The government of the Ashanti Empire operated first as a loose network and eventually as a centralised kingdom with a specialised bureaucracy centred in the capital city of [[Kumasi]].<ref name="col" /> Prior to Akan contact with Europeans, the Akan people created an economy based on principally gold and [[gold bar]] precious metals, which were traded with other states in Africa.<ref name="col" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/african/ashanti/history.html |title=A Short History of Ashanti Gold Weights |publisher=Rubens.anu.edu.au |access-date=24 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902030803/http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/african/ashanti/history.html |archive-date=2 September 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Ga-Dangme and Ewe migrated westward from south-western Nigeria. The Ewe, formerly known as Dogbo, migrated from Oyo area with their Gbe-speaking kinsmen (Adja, Fon, Phla/Phera and Ogun/Gun) and, in transition, settled at Ketou in Benin Republic, Tado in Togo, and Dogbo Nyigbo in Benin Republic, with Nortsie (a walled town in present-day Togo) as their final dispersal point. Their dispersal from Nortsie was necessitated by the high-handed rule of King Agorkorli (Agɔ Akɔli), who was the reigning monarch of the tribe at that time. The Ewe in Ghana speak three principal dialects: Anlo (along the coast), Tongu (along the Volta river) and Ewedome (in the hill country side). The [[Ga-Adangbe people|Ga-Dangme]] occupy the Greater Accra Region and parts of the Eastern Region, while the Ewe are found in the [[Volta Region]] as well as the neighbouring Togo, Benin Republic and Nigeria (around Badagry area).{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}