Mankessim

Mankessim is a town in the Central Region of Ghana, about 75 kilometres west of Accra on the main road to Sekondi-Takoradi, and the traditional headquarters of the Fante people. Its history is linked to three warriors, Obrumankoma, Odapagyan and Oson, who helped the Fante migrate from Techiman to Adoagyir. In many oral traditions it was the first Akan settlement founded after the Fante reached the Atlantic coast, before the Portuguese arrived in the 1470s, and in the eighteenth century English traders knew it as Murram. It was the site of the sacred grove Nananom Pow, has a large market that draws traders from Ghana and beyond, and keeps Asafo companies, traditional military groups acknowledged for their role in the town's history. The 2010 census population was 38,313.