Grassfielders, Western Grassfielders, Graffi

Place: Northwest Region Of Cameroon

Biography:

The Tikar People, also known as Grassfielders, Western Grassfielders, or Graffi, are an umbrella term for a group of closely related peoples who mostly inhabit the Northwest Region of Cameroon with a very small minority in the Adamawa Region. 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. According to the Bamenda City Council the Tikari groups migrated from Northern Nigeria to settle in the highlands of western Cameroon. 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.