Apart from a number of famous black Americans having discovered Tikar ancestry among them Quincy Jones they are of interest due to the practice of a unique form of divination involving the Giant Spider,the Black ngam.
The diviner,duly licensed by the government,first finds a likely burrow of the Red Baboon Spider ,Hysterocrates gigas or a tarantula. These nightmare creatures can inflict a painful bite and symbolize truth and the spirit world.
The person with the issue,be it witchcraft/business/sickness or women consults the diviner who places specially made plum tree cards seen here in an upside down 2 foot container atop the burrow. The spider emerges and is 'questioned.' Its rearrangement of the cards is then 'interpreted.'
This form of divination has been practiced since they settled in their present location of N.Cameroon some 900 years ago. The French colonialists accepted the practice and licenced the diviners while the present government continues to do so.
Returning to the point-its long past time for us as a people to write our own history. Until today educated African adults still repeat the story of the Bantu Migration like a religious mantra. We've allowed others with their own agenda to write about our past with obvious results. We've been pigeonholed into fake boxes for long enough and must know tell our own stories.
thank you for your article. i've been doing research on the Tikar for 4 months now an i haven't been able to find alot of information. what historical documents informed you about the Tikar migration?
ReplyDeleteIts not always possible to list sources but I used several sources including a research students paper which btw had been accepted by his tutors and 2 separate Tikar elders resident in Kenya. All these separate sources tallied.
ReplyDeleteAlso this is one particular area of our history that srsly lacks historical documents.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely worth looking into. When we study Nile Valley civilization, we find that Africans were always mobile and many migrated from all parts of the continent to settle the 4,000 mile stretch of the nile river, the Sudan or Nubia, from whence they reached the height of their civilization in Khemet (Egypt). I think this is align when with your write-up. We also find that Empero Kanu of Ethiopia also sent explorers to navigate the body of land now called Africa, and his admiral travelled from the easter tip all the way to western tip to the area called Barbetus; which is today called Cameroon. We are truely an acient people, and our story is not yet told.
ReplyDelete... an effort to do a write up on such a scholarship showed that merely calling or proposing that the subject tell their story is not one of the tools needed to produce such a document... the denigration of GENUINE? effort by others is a mound of horse shit... if it is easy...
ReplyDeleteGENUINE... if not, then,
...... motive?
...... whose?
...... benefit.. how.. who?