A male Bamun or Tikar Bonze mask, Cameroon, signs of age and ritual use. The Tikarare a central African people who inhabit the Bamenda Grassfields in Cameroon. They are known as great artisans, artists and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, oral tradition traces the origin of the Tikar people to the Nile River Valley in present-day Sudan. They speak a Northern Bantoid language called Tikar. The current population of Tikar in Cameroon is approximately 168,000-173,000. The Tikar people of the Northwest are thought to be closely related to the Bamileke people through the Bantu-Cameroon-Bamileke cluster.