The Kwahu traces their historical origins to Adansi and Asante Mampong in present-day Ashanti Region. The first migration from the Adansi occurred when the Asante Kingdom or social formation had not been thought out by Osei Tutu I (founder of the Asante nation). Long before the Asante-Denkyira war of1699-1700, Nana Osei Twum, the first Chief Agonaman in the Adansi Morobem, his nephew Badu, his younger brother Kwasi Tititii and a slave Kofabra ("fetch it") together with Frempong Manso (who later founded Asante-Akyem stool land in the Asante Kingdom) Nana Ameyaw and Nana Adu Gyamfi, (founders of Asante Afidwase and Asante Gyamase respectively) fled from the cruelty of the King of Denkyira who had captured Adansi in about1650, to find a new land. The group got divided and the trekking Kwahu party led by Osei Twum moved up mountains and stopped first at Dampong, whereupon Osei Twum and his party then moved on and discovered the Mpraeso Scarp. The trekking Kwahus continued to search for suitable land settle, thus from Mount Apaku where they first settled, they came across a stream with a rock in it shaped like a stone jar, and Osee Twum interpreting this as a good omen decided to settle there and called the place Obo-kuruwa or Bukuruwa (meaning stone jar). They settled there for many years, until Twum died and was succeeded by Baadu. Bukuruwa grew to become a big town; it received emigrants from the Adumoa, the Obo and the Nkwatia people.

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Historical accounts, “A Few Notes on Kwahu ("Quahoe," a Territory in the Gold Coast Colony, West Africa)” published by W. Perregaux in 1903 and “THE KWAHUS—THEIR CONNECTION WITH THE AFRAM PLAIN” published by J.R. WALLIS in 1953 confirms that the name Kwahu emerged as a name for a social formation as a result of expression of grief about the death of Kofraba, the slave. Perregaux (1903) asserts that "one day a nephew of Osei Twum, Kwasi Tititi, went with his slave Kofabra about the country to explore it. During this expedition the slave died. Kwasi Tititi returned to Bukuruwa to anoounce his death to his uncle. Full of griedf at this news Osei Twum exclaimed: O! akoa wu ui! (Lit: Oh, the death of my slave!). And from this time, the whole country was called "Okwa`u", (Kwawu). Wallis (1953) building on similar account, narrates that "In the course of time Kwasi Tititii and Kofabra died and Baadu, comparing the elaborate funeral of Kwasi Tititii with the poor one of Kofabra the slave, is reported to have said "Akoa wuo ni" (so this is a slave's death!) or "Akoa wu" (where a slave died) which corrupted became Okwawu or Kwahu.” Kofi Nkansa-Kyeremateng in his 124 Pages book: “Kwahu Handbook: Tips Galore for Investors and Tourists” published in 2000 also concurred with Perregaux (1903) and Wallis (1953) about the accounts (Kofraba`s death) on the origin of the name kwahu. Indeed, Nkansa-Kyeremateng (2000) went further to explain the origin of Nkwakwa, stating that “Bepong was said to be a formidable Kingdom with heavily guarded mountain passes. The fear the Kingdom evoked got its name “Kowu” which simply means “go there and die”. The name Nkawkaw (Nkכּ-Kowu) was a warning to people approaching the Kwahu chiefdom”.

The second wave of Kwahu emigrants were from Mamong Agyei, whose uncle was Esono Gyima of Asante Mampong, was chased away by his uncle Atakora for not helping in a war. Mampong Agyei in his trekking first settled at Hwediem, where he was defeated in a war with King of Dwaben (Juaben), before he moved to settle at Abene. The Abene, became the seat of the present line of the Paramount Chiefs of Kwahu. The Kwahu land continued to receive other migrants including the Ewes, Hausa and people of northern extraction who came to settle particularly in the Afram Plains. If other migrants came to settle in Afram Plain from the Volta enclaves, the Kwahu people also settled in some part of Volta region when they fought the Akwamu people at Asabi on the River Volta in the Akwamu-Accra (1669-1680). King Baadu was defeated and the remnants of his forces crossed the Volta into Togoland and settled at Tscheme, south of Kpandu. Wallis asserts that “It is from here perhaps that the seeds of the longa nd bitter dispute between the Kwahus and Ewe people over lands on the right bank of the river were sown.” Historian Debrunner confirmed Kwahu presence when relates that several centuries before the German occupation of Togoland (1884), an Akan people, the Kwahu Dukoman, settled north east of the River Menu. Most of the Akans in these areas now occupied by th Buems, Ewes and Akpossos have Kwahu ancestry.

The Kwahus were closely connected with their neighbors, the Asantes and did not break away from the Asante overrule until 1874-1875. British control was formally established with the declaration of the Gold Coast Colony in 1901, when Kwahu and Akim Abuakwa were constituted as the Birim administrative district. Birim was subdivided in 1914, and Kwahu became a district of its own. 

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As both Kwahu indigenes and visitors celebrate this year`s Kwahu Easter Festival 2022, attention is also be paid to the history of the people, their entrepreneurial skills, respect for appropriate socio-cultural and traditional values and rules as a bastion for regulating family matters and other laws regulating political and economic affairs of Kwahu State as enshrined in the 1915 comprehensive document, the Magna Carta of Kwahu, signed between Omanhene Kwaku Akuamoa and his subjects.

Implementation of the document and amendment to certain portions is being used by Kwahu traditional council to check unscrupulous people who have turned the Easter celebration into ambushed condom marketing business, alcohol and sexual tourism and open display of sexual orgies.