Tikar people

The Tikar (also Tikari, Tika, Tikali, Tige, Tigare and Tigre) are a Central African people who inhabit the Adamawa Region and Northwest Region of Cameroon. They are known as 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. Such ethnic groups were referred to in the 1969 official statistics as "Semi-Bantus" and "Sudanese Negroes." They speak a Northern Bantoid language called Tikar. 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 current population of the Tikar in Cameroon is approximately 170,000. This is a vast difference from other enslaved and trafficked ethnic groups such as the Kirdi, who still number around 15 million people. This could be due to the high number of Tikar people who were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Americas. 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 who anthropologists and historians believe have a legitimate claim to Tikar lineage.

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.