Tikar people

Graffi, Grassfields, Tikar
A Tikar man (wearing Toghu cloth) plays the end-blown horn, an traditional instrument from the Northwest Region of Cameroon
Total population
3,065,644 (9.9%)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Northwest Region of Cameroon
Languages
Religion
Related ethnic groups
Bamileke • Bamum

The Tikar, more commonly referred to as Graffi[2] and formally known as Tikari, Tigar, Tigari, and Tigre throughout their history[3] are a Central African ethnic group in Cameroon. They are known to be great artists, artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of the Tikar people to the Nile River Valley in present-day Sudan.[4] According to the Bamenda City Council the Tikari groups migrated from Northern Nigeria to settle in the highlands of western Cameroon.[5] Such ethnic groups were referred to in the 1969 official statistics as "Semi-Bantus" and "Sudanese Negroes."[6] They speak Grassfields languages which are a are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. One of the few African ethnic groups to practice a monotheistic traditional religion, the Tikar refer to God the Creator by the name Nyuy. They also have an extensive spiritual system of ancestral reverence.

The Tikar or Grassfields peoples make up approximately 9.9% of Cameroon's population.[1][7] This could be due to the high number of Tikar people who were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Americas.[8] The Bamum people and other ethnic groups have also asserted their link to the Tikar people through Tikar rulers in the Kingdom of Bamum. However, the Kom, Nso, Bamum, Ndop-Bamunka, and Bafut peoples are the only ethnic groups that anthropologists and historians believe have a legitimate claim to Tikar lineage.[9][8]

There are currently six adjoining Tikar kingdoms: Bankim (Kimi), Ngambé-Tikar, Kong (Nkong/Boikouong), Nditam (Bandam), Ngoumé, and Gâ (Ntchi). The boundaries of these kingdoms have remained since German colonizers arrived in Cameroon.[8]

  1. ^ a b "Africa: Cameroon – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. 8 July 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  2. ^ "My Roots My Identity Quest Values!". 8 July 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  3. ^ Zeitlyn, David (1995). "Eldridge Mohammadou on Tikar Origins". Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. 26 (1): 100–102.
  4. ^ Delneuf, Michèle; Essom, Joseph-Marie; Froment, Alain (1998). Paléo-anthropologie en Afrique centrale: un bilan de l'archéologie au Cameroun (in French). Paris, France: L'Harmattan. pp. 214–215. ISBN 978-2-7384-7405-6.
  5. ^ "Bamenda III Council: The Council of the future". 8 July 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  6. ^ Fonlon, Bernard (1969). "The Language Problem in Cameroon (An Historical Perspective)". Abbia: Cameroon Cultural Review. 22 (1): 25–49. JSTOR 3098088.
  7. ^ McCulloch, Merran; Littlewood, Margaret (2017). Peoples of the Central Cameroons (Tikar. Bamum and Bamileke. Banen, Bafia and Balom): Western Africa Part IX (Ethnographic Survey of Africa) (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 11–13, 36–40, 53. ISBN 978-1138239524.
  8. ^ a b c Price, David (1979). "Who Are the Tikar Now?". Paideuma. 25: 89–98. ISSN 0078-7809. JSTOR 23076439.
  9. ^ DeLancey, Mark Dike; Neh Mbuh, Rebecca; DeLancey, Mark W. (2010). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon. Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth, UK: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 402. ISBN 978-0810837751.