By the beginning of the 16th century, European sources noted the state of Twifo, said to be rich in gold; they described it as near the forest area with a capital known as Hemang.
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, the earliest authority writing in 1505 about the Akan, referred to them by the name Quaforo, Cuffrue or Juffer, his attempt in Portuguese to render the sound of Twifo.
Many settlers from various Akan groupings came later and settled on either side of the Pra River; all adopted the name Twifo.
[1] By the early 1700s, Twifo was a close ally of the Fante Confederacy against the rising power of the Ashanti Empire.
The Morkwa, headed by their leader Nana Amo Kwaw, settled beyond the Pra River; they shared a common boundary with the already-settled Twifo Hemang kingdom.