Wenchi

Wenchi's oral traditions describe an origin from a hole in the ground, aided by a mythical burrowing creature called a wankyie. It is a narrative found among several Akan groups, and scholars often read it as a claim to autochthonous status — a way of saying, simply, we have always been here. Similar accounts are told at Bono-Tekyiman and Bono Manso, where traditions recount ancestors emerging from a sacred hole at Amuowi, a site with settlement layers reaching back to the 5th century CE. These stories underline how much place and sacred geography matter in Bono political identity.

The archaeology is striking in its own right. Excavations at Bonoso, an early Wenchi site, uncovered pottery, iron slag, animal bones, palm kernels and grindstones, with radiocarbon samples dated to AD 663–774 — making it one of the earliest inland Akan settlements known. Nearby Ahwene Koko produced similar pottery and a later date of AD 1585 ± 80, suggesting reoccupation and cultural continuity. There was extensive iron smelting at Bonoso, including a slag mound and references to a sub-chief responsible for iron production, and painted pottery — rare in southern Akan contexts — was also recovered. Wenchi, in other words, is not a footnote to Ghana's past. It is one of the places where that past was first written in the ground.

A short drive from Wenchi lies Begho, also known historically as Nsoko or Insoco, just south of its successor community, Hani. Founded in the 11th century, Begho grew into a trading entrepôt and cosmopolitan centre linking merchants from across West Africa and North Africa. It sat on the savanna–forest ecotone, which made it a key node in trans-Saharan trade — particularly for gold, kola and slaves. Before Europeans arrived on the coast in 1471, Begho had already been contacted by Mande-speaking Muslim merchants from the Mali empire, who often founded permanent outlying settlements beyond the town limits.

Excavations by the University of Ghana between 1970 and 1979, and a joint UCLA–University of Ghana dig in 1979, identified at least five separate quarters and a thousand to fifteen hundred house mounds, pointing to a peak population of roughly 7,000–10,000 people. There was a quarter for the local Brong population, the Nyarko quarter, the Kramo quarter associated with Mande-speaking Muslims, the Dwinfor quarter with evidence of metallurgy, and a market quarter. Spindle whorls turned up in every quarter and dye pits in the Kramo quarter; Arabic sources note Begho as well known for its textiles, and the use of dyed thread and strip weaving may have entered the region through these networks, laying early foundations for Akan kente weaving. Brassworking was based in the Dwinfor quarter, where clay crucibles with brass signatures were found.

Oral traditions state that Begho was destroyed by the Ashanti Empire in the mid-18th century, triggering the dispersal of its population; communities such as Kong and Bondoukou trace their origins to refugees from the city. It persisted in reduced form into the early 19th century, and its cultural influence — in religious practice and pottery — outlasted the walls. The site today is a scatter of mounds under thick elephant grass, with Hani villagers using earth from collapsed houses for the swish walls of new ones. It is not a monument you look at so much as a landscape you read.

Wenchi is the hometown and birthplace of Kofi Abrefa Busia, born a prince of the town on 11 July 1913 and buried there after his death in Oxford on 28 August 1978. He became Ghana's Prime Minister in the Second Republic, and before that the country's first university professor, teaching in many countries and helping to deepen Ghana's and Africa's standing on the academic map. As Prime Minister he introduced a rural development ministry aimed at opening up rural areas through roads, health posts and pipe-borne water.

His mausoleum sits in a large walled compound on a hill about 400 metres off the Wenchi–Akrobi road from the centre of town, between two two-storey buildings that once served as his private residence and offices. The tombstone reads: "Kofi Abrefa Busia, 11 July 1913 – 28 August 1978. Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Ghana," and carries a scripture from Philippians 2:16. A bust stands in his memory, and a library block built by former President John Agyekum Kufuor holds books, artefacts and learning materials belonging to him.

It is worth being honest about the state of the place. Residents have publicly complained about neglect, weeds and leaking roofs, and journalists have found the compound overgrown apart from the tomb. That dilapidation is itself part of the story — a country still deciding how to honour the man who restored it to civilian rule. Go with respect, and go knowing you are visiting a grave as much as a monument.

Wenchi is a farming town, and the majority of people in the municipality make their living from the land — farming, animal husbandry and settlement. The town's main marketplace is the Wenchi New Market, known for its weekly Thursday market day. In April 2026 the Wenchi Traditional Council, led by the Paramount Chief Osagyefo Ampem Anye Amoampong Tabrako III, approved the Wenchi Thursday Central Market as the site for the government's proposed 24-Hour Economy Model Market, a round-the-clock hub intended to include modern stalls, cold storage, warehouses, banking services, childcare, a clinic and security posts.

The cultural calendar is anchored by Apoo, a festival celebrated annually in Wenchi and Techiman, lasting a week in March and April. The word comes from the root po, meaning "to reject." Oral tradition holds that it began under the reign of Nana Kwakye Ameyaw, an authoritarian leader whose people could not freely express their views; they consulted the local gods, who told them to set aside days to air their grievances, during which no one could be held responsible for what they said. The people would say "Mereko po me haw" — "I am going to say what was on my chest."

During the Apoo procession, grievances are aired and insinuations cast about the wrongdoings of others; even the chief is not exempt. Priests parade the streets beforehand to destroy malicious charms, women collect white clay from the Aponkosu River to decorate shrines, and on Great Apoo Friday elderly women parade at dawn shaking rattles and singing songs nicknamed akokobonee, or "cock-crowing." The procession ends at the ahenfie, the palace, where the Paramount Chief speaks and refreshments are served. In August, an annual yam festival marks the end of the first rainy season and the yam harvest in Wenchi and Techiman.