Akan states of West Africa in West Africa, the area controlled by the Akan states stretched from the equatorial forest southward to the Ofin and Pra Rivers This area roughly compares to what later became the states of Ashanti and Adansi While locals called the early Akan settlements Akyerekyere, Europeans identified the people as belonging to two separate groups, the Akany and Twifu (or Twifo) While a number of scholars suggest that members of Akan states were of Dyula ancestry, others disagree It is true that a number of Dyula settlements existed in Akan states, but the most prevalent view is that Akan states grew in strength to rival Dyula rather than evolving from it Further arguments that support the belief that the Akan states were separate from Dyula center on cultural differences Two customs that were distinctly Akan in nature and that had no counterpart in Dyulan culture were the annual yam festivals and the tradition of matrilineal inheritance Subsequent studies of the Akan people have led scholars to believe that the southern branch of the Akan, the Fante, traveled in earlier times from the Volta Gap to the coastlands of Accura, where they intermarried with existing inhabitants As the area expanded, several powerful Akan states emerged The oldest of these is thought to be Bono, which was also called Brong Asante, which later came to be known as Ashanti, proved to be the most powerful Akan state Others included Akwamu, Denkyira, Akyem, and Fante Europe and the Akan States When the Portuguese established their presence in West Africa in 1471, they discovered that the Akan people were not living in towns, as was typical in Africa during this period Instead, the Akan were occupying small kingdoms ruled by kings and queens in the savanna north of the existing gold belt Within each kingdom, families that were descended from seven or eight particular clans, identified by matrilineal lineage, lived in villages where they were ruled by their own chieftains In addition to the chieftains, each family and clan had its own leader All of the families, clans, and villages worshipped gods that they had individually deified The various lineages also had their own symbols, which were used to identify matrilineal ancestry Once it became clear that the gold trade would develop into a significant economic undertaking, the Akan states realized that it was in their best interest to control the route to and from the Gold Coast As a result, the Akan states took on a prominent role in developing West Africa Early on, the Akan depended on three significant areas to establish their presence in the gold trade The first of these was Bona, which was located close to the Lobi gold mine The others were Banda, which controlled passage to the main gold trading route through the Volta Gap, and Bono, where Bono-Mansa, the capital of the early Akan states, was located Over the following decades, the gold trade with Portugal exploded, reaching its peak in 1560 with West African gold providing onefourth of all revenue for Portugal From the earliest days, the Akan had been heavily involved in agriculture, developing a farming belt along the outer environs of the equatorial forest where they grew yams and oil-producing palms Other agricultural activities included the production of plantain, bananas, and rice, as well as collecting kola nuts, raising livestock, hunting, fishing, and making salt The density of the soil in and around the forest limited the type of produce that could be grown, and increasing populations soon exhausted the soil As a result, the Akan people entered the equatorial forests, where they cleared enough land to support the needs of the people In the 17th century, agricultural production and the growth of the trade along the Gold Coast led to permanent settlements in the equatorial forest Rates of urbanization and increasing sophistication among the Akan states subsequently led to the emergence of more complex political and social structures Strong leadership among the people of the Akan states allowed them to retain their own cultures in the midst of the expanding European presence, while winning the respect of the Europeans in the process Slavery in the Akan States In the past, attempts by some Akan leaders to dominate the entire region had resulted in tribal wars As a result, victorious tribes had begun selling members of conquered tribes at local European slave markets The more vulnerable tribes, such as the Ewe who lived in the lower Volta area, were continually subjected to being enslaved Additionally, certain Africans were born into lineage slavery and were forced from their earliest years to serve the dominant African groups The Akan states also bought slaves from the Portuguese Most of these came from Benin, where the government regularly sold off its captives After 1516, when the government of Benin reduced its military activity, most of the slaves that the Akan states purchased from Portugal came from the Niger Delta and the Igbo region The Akan states retained some slaves for local use, while others were placed on slave ships bound for markets along the Atlantic slave-trading route Domestically, the Akan states used slaves in royal households and in transporting goods to market Additionally, large numbers of slaves were put to work in construction, in