Techiman is a market town in the Bono East region of Ghana and one of the most important commercial centres in the country. Its six-day market is among the largest in West Africa, drawing wholesale traders in yams, cassava, plantains, and grain from across Ghana and neighbouring countries. On a major market day the noise and scale of it is genuinely impressive.
The town has been a seat of traditional authority for centuries. It is the capital of the Bono Traditional Area and the successor to the ancient Bono Kingdom, one of the earliest organised polities in Ghana's forest-savanna zone. When the Asante destroyed the original capital at Bono Manso in 1723, the Bono relocated their centre of power to Techiman, which has held that role ever since.
Just north of town, the Tano River has its source at Traa. In Bono and broader Akan religion, the Tano deity is among the most powerful, and the sacred grove at the river's source has been an active place of worship for hundreds of years. It is one of the few genuinely sacred natural sites in Ghana still functioning as such.
The town also makes a convenient base for visiting the Buabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, where black-and-white colobus and mona monkeys roam freely through the village, and the Kintampo Waterfalls about an hour to the north. Techiman sits on the main road between Kumasi and Tamale, so it is easy to fold into a longer journey through Ghana.