The Akan civilization that preceded modern Ghana was one of the wealthiest regions in Africa between the 3rd century-16th-century when it was a southern part of the realm of the massive Wagadu Empire (popularly known today as the Ancient Ghana Empire). The Akan region, was a premier source of the gold trade in West Africa that was considered by West Asians, North Africans, and Europeans as the best gold in the world.
Akan origins rooted in Bono people.
Akani dialect prevailed due to trade network. Akan were known as Bono. Akani of the people became the dominant dialect of the language because they were the trader network, they were all over the region, so their version Akan became the popular name, after the fact.
However, the role of the Akan as a gold trading kingdom predates this period, as the first Akan gold trading posts were established by merchants from Kush in the 8th-century bce. In fact, the Akan name for the Supreme Being is Nyame, which is nothing more than an Akan pronunciation, Ny-Amen, of the Nile Supreme Being Amen.
By the end of the 16th-century, the great Akan empire fragmented into pieces due to the collapse of the economy in West Africa that came from the destabilization of the Songhai Empire in 1591. The increased European slave raiders in West Africa only heightened the fragmentation.
However, in 1675 Osei Tutu became king of the Asante (one of the Akan states). He reunited the Akan into a federation of states. It was during his reign that the Akan military became mostly composed of riflemen.
The Guinea coin (a European term for West Africa that was a mispronunciation of the name "Ghana") was the name of the British gold coins used during the British Imperial Period (17th-19th centuries) because the gold came from West Africa, particularly from the "Gold Coast" which is now the nation of Ghana.
Nana(Gana) Bassi was the one who led Wagadou to defeat the Arab Almoravids and consolidate the Empire. It was during his reign and other Nana's(Gana's), that Wagadou became known as Ghana(Gana/Nana) Empire by the Arab Almoravids and the outside world.
Sadly this Title or Nana's left after the Arab Almoravids attacked the Empire again and tried to Islamised and Arabatised the people with the help of the Sonnike half of the Empire.
That's when the Akans left.
NB: Ancient Ghana Empire or Wagadou was founded by Sonnike people.
The Akans like other groups in Wagadou migrated there after the collapse of the Nubian Empire by the Askumite Empire. Before Nana(Gana) Bassi, the Sonnike rulers of Wagadou went by the Title Kaya Maghan.
NB: Nana and Gana means the same thing. They mean warrior king or Supreme ruler.
Source: Rememba Matthew/wassamaninsider.com
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History