The Chokosi are an Akan people who trace their origin to an area in the Ivory Coast in a place they call Anou or Ano. Thus, they refer to themselves and their language as Anufo "people of Anu". It appears that migrations in the early 18th century brought together Mande horsemen and their malams from the North and Akan peoples from the East.
Together with the indigenous Ndenyi people, they were amalgamated into one people with a mixed language and culture. In the mid 18th century, a small band of mercenaries left Ano to assist the chiefs of the Gonja and Mamprusi peoples in present day Ghana. The band consisted of Mande horsemen, Akan musket-toting foot soldiers, and some Muslim scholar amulet-makers.[1] These groups provided the basis for a society divided into three classes or estates: Nobles, commoners and Muslims.
Eventually, the small army established a camp on the shores of the Oti river where the town of Mango in Togo stands today. Since they were warriors and not farmers, they made their living by conducting raids into the farming communities around them. This provided them with wives and slaves as well as foodstuffs and livestock. Eventually the people settled in the surrounding farming communities, and assimilation took place.
The Chokosi in Ghana currently inhabit an area of savannah grassland in the north eastern part of Ghana. They are also found in Togo.