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Kirdi

This article is about followers of indigenous religions in West Africa. For the Northeast Caucasian language, see Karata.
This article is about the Kirdi people. For the language, see Chadic languages.

Kirdi people
Iron kirdi valuta from Museu Afro Brasil
Total population
15,029,000 [1]
Languages
Chadic languages, French language
Religion
Christianity, Traditional Faiths, Islam

The Kirdi (/ˈkɜːrdɪ/) are the many cultures and ethnic groups who inhabit northwestern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria.

The term was applied to various ethnic groups who refused to convert to Islam after Islamic conquests of the region and was a pejorative, although some writers have reappropriated it.[2] The term comes from the Kanuri word for pagan; the Kanuri people are predominantly Muslim.

In the eleventh century, people such as the Fulani converted to Islam and spread throughout West Africa in the following centuries. They had also begun migrating to Cameroon, where they had attempted to convert the pre-existing peoples.[3] Therefore, the kirdi, have fewer similarities culturally or linguistically as they do in their general geographic dispersal, primarily situated in the arid steppe and savannahs of North and Far North regions of Cameroon[4]

Estimates of how many groups may be described as Kirdi vary, with estimates ranging from 26 (2007)[2] to more than 40 (1977).[5]

The Bata, Fali, Fata, Gemjek, Guidar, Giziga, Hurza, Kapsiki, Mada, Mafa, Massa, Matakam, Mofou, Mora, Mousgoum, Muyang, Ouldeme, Podoko, Toupouri people, Vame and Zulgo are all considered Kirdi, due to their resistance to Islam. They speak Chadic and Adamawa languages.

The first mentioning of Kirdi is by Denham in 1826 (1985:145) who translates the word Kerdies as "Negroes who have never embraced the Mohammedan faith".

Generally, the Kirdi have been underrepresented in the Cameroonian political system. Based on the frequently quoted CIA World Factbook, the Kirdi represent 11 percent of the Cameroon population, compared to the predominantly Muslim and more culturally homogeneous Fulani at 10 percent of the Cameroon population; then Cameroon Highlanders 31 percent, Equatorial Bantu 19 percent, Northwestern Bantu, 8 percent, and Eastern Nigritic 7 percent, and other African and non-Africans representing 14 percent.[6] Given their historical under-representation, the Kirdi has never constituted a political voting bloc.[7] Seeking to gain Kirdi votes, the Fulani, while historically they despise the Kirdi, cajole them into boosting their electoral chances, such as for the Cameroonian Union or UC.[4] Although the Kirdi community is vastly diverse in cultures, based on pressures from rival groups, such as the Fulani, they have come to see themselves as a single group of people, and have had an increasing interest in representation in the political system.[3]

  1. ^ "Refworld | Assessment for Kirdi in Cameroon".
  2. ^ a b Steven Nelson, From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture In and Out of Africa (2007). University of Chicago Press: p. 155.
  3. ^ a b Minorities at Risk Project, Chronology for Kirdi in Cameroon, 2004, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38751e.html [accessed 11 September 2020]
  4. ^ a b DeLancey, M. D., et al. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon. Historical Dictionaries of Africa, No. 113, 2010. Available at: http://shcas.shnu.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/0e/08/4b0564f84fd9b9a65bde70ec5e4a/67ccaabe-3afc-4fb2-9df9-b7b27b0ebc0a.pdf [accessed 11 September 2020]
  5. ^ Gert Chesi and Rudolf Kreuzer. The Last Africans (1977). Perlinger: p. 18.
  6. ^ CIA World Factbook. 2006. "Cameroon People – 2006. Available at: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cameroon/
  7. ^ Ngoh, Victor Julius, The Political Evolution of Cameroon, 1884–1961. Dissertations and Theses, 1979. Available at: https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.2924

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