In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Bonduku was the major northwestern trade outlet for the Bron kingdom of Gyaman and the Asante kingdom to which it was tributary. The commercial importance of Bonduku owed much to the resettlement of Juula there, after the final collapse of the older emporium of Bighu in the early eighteenth century. The Bonduku imamate was initially held by the Kamaghatay, under the protection of the Gyaman ruler, the Gyamanhene. Subsequently the imamate was transferred…