Kapsiki people

File:Kapsiki home in Rhumsiki.jpg

Home on the outskirts of Rhumsiki

The Kapsiki (Ka-Tsepkye) is one of the dialects of the Kamwe Language found in Nigeria and Cameroon. They live in the Far North Province in the Mandara Mountains. The Ka-Tsepkye are considered one of Cameroon's Kirdi (pagan) ethnic groups due to their resistance to Islamisation during the Fulani jihad of Modibo Adama. The Kamwe language has about eleven other dialects which are Nkafa, Sina, Ghye, Humsi, Dakwa and Tilli amongst. The Kamwe people resisted the invasion by the Fulani jihadists led by Modibo Adama and Hama Yaji.

• Volcanic outcroppings in kapsiki country.jpg

  Volcanic peaks in the Kapsiki region

• Kapsiki woman on hill.jpg

  A woman outside Rhumsiki.

• The women during the year festival in Mogode. Kapsiki.jpg

  Kapsiki women at the yearly festival

• A crab divination pot in Kapsiki.jpg

  Crab divination by the Kapsiki

• Just initiated boys in Rumsu, Kapsiki.jpg

  Just initiated boys in Rumsu, Kapsiki.

References

• DeLancey, Mark W., and Mark Dike DeLancey (2000): Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon (3rd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
• Van Beek, Walter E.A. (2012): The Dancing Dead. Ritual and Religion among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeast Nigeria, Oxford University Press.
• Van Beek, Walter E.A. (2013): Crab divination among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria' in Reviewing reality : dynamics of African divination Walter E.A. van Beek & Philip M. Peek, eds. Berlijn: LIT Verlag, p. 185-209.