The Chamba people are an ethnic group primarily found in east-central Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon, inhabiting the border region that forms part of their traditional homeland, which they call Chambaland. They are a significant group in Nigeria’s northeast.

---

Location and Languages

• Location in Nigeria: The Chamba are predominantly located in Taraba and Adamawa states, particularly in local government areas like Ganye (considered a major center), Jada, Toungo, and Bali.
• Neighboring Groups: They share borders and cultural interactions with groups such as the Mumuye, Jukun, Kuteb, and Fulani.
• Languages: The Chamba are unique in that they speak two distantly related Niger-Congo languages:
  • Chamba Daka (spoken by the majority, known as Sama Nnakenyare), which dominates the Nigerian borderlands.
  • Chamba Leko, mostly spoken on the Cameroon side of the border.

---

Economy and Traditional Life

• Livelihood: The Chamba are traditionally an agrarian people, living in grassland areas where farming is the mainstay of their economy. They cultivate cereal crops like guinea corn and cash crops such as cocoa and coffee.
• Art and Craftsmanship: They are widely known for their highly developed skills in sculpture, pottery, and metalworking.
• Social Structure: Their society is organized into clans with varying styles of chiefdoms. Leadership roles can sometimes be held by men, women, or both, based on the particular clan’s tradition.

---

Culture, Religion, and Art

• Traditional Religion: The traditional Chamba religion centers on a creator solar God (Su) and ancestor spirits who act as intermediaries between the creator and the living. Special individuals are revered for their ability to interact with these ancestral spirits. A minority of the population also adheres to Islam.
• Cults and Initiation: A form of social control is maintained through cults, called jup by the Chamba Daka, which are connected with misfortune or disease. Membership involves initiation: circumcision is a rite of passage for boys into manhood in the men’s cult, while for women, the transition into womanhood is generally marked by marriage before joining a cult.
• Masking Tradition: The Chamba are famous for their masking traditions. Masks, often representing the wild or a buffalo/bush cow, are composed of wooden carvings and long fiber costumes. These masks symbolize the power of the bush and are brought into the village to perform at critical events like the initiation of chiefs and funerals