ABSTRACT

The cultural pluralism and civilisation in Cameroon owes it credence to a lot of

migrations. From North to South, East to West, the people of Cameroon have experienced
different historical movements, leading to different lifestyles and feeding habits explaining why
increasingly multidisciplinary research studies abound. Today, Cameroon historiography
focuses more on issues related to the origins, migrations and civilizations of the peoples
occupying this country. It is thus, within the context of the aforementioned concept that this
Ph.D. thesis entitled: The Tikar of Cameroon, historical origins from 1961 came into being.
The Tikar are a major ethnic group of Cameroon, divided into two sets: one,
considered original Tikar, found in the upper-Mbam and other, considered descendants of the
latter settled in the grass fields. This write-up sort to find out or identify the characteristic
features of the history and civilization of the tikar peoples of Cameroon. Besides portraying
their identity, it also aims to establish the links between the Tikar from the upper-Mbam and
those of the grassfields especially evaluate the continuum of tikar civilization on their
settlements. Inter-alia herein, this artistry highlights the reconstruction of the pre-colonial past
of the tikar entities, through the technics for preventing and managing conflicts, as well as the
study of the meeting of the various tikar groups and the impact with European contact.
This study also throw more light on the vast culture of the Tikar people reputed for
their homogeneity as well as a strong socio-politico cultural structures. Not all being the
same, it consisted of kingdoms and chiefdoms with strictly consistent and similar structures,
since it is a set of multiple entities established within the four regions of Cameroon:
Adamawa, Centre, West and North West. Despite the geographical dispersion that
characterizes the Tikar of Cameroon, they are renowned for their political influence through
powerful states like the Bamoum Kingdom and chiefdoms of Bankim, Ngamb-Tikar and
Bankim but also cultural continuity in diversity.
Through transdisciplinary research, this PhD thesis / Ph.D aims to contribute to the
scholarship and appreciation of the political, diplomatic and cultural history of the Tikar in
particular and the Cameroon people in general.