The Tupuri are an

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...

and

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

. They speak a language called

Tupuri Tupuri (or Toupouri) is a language mostly spoken in the Mayo-Kebbi Est Region of southern Chad and in small parts of northern Cameroon. It is an Mbum language spoken by the Tupuri people with approximately 300,000 speakers. Tupuri was erron ...

, which had 125,000 speakers in Cameroon at an unspecified date and 90,785 speakers in Chad in 1993. There were 215,466 of them in Chad in 2009. In Cameroon, the Tupuri live east of

Kaélé Kaélé is a town in Cameroon's Far North Province, on the Diamaré Plain at . It lies near the Chadian border and 104 km south of Maroua. The town has a population of roughly 30,600 and is the capital of the Mayo Kani division. The cotton ...

in the Kaele division and in the Kar-Hay subdivision of the

Mayo-Danay division Mayo-Danay is a departments of Cameroon, department of Far North Province, Cameroon. The department covers an area of 5,303 km and at the 2005 Census had a total population of 529,061. The capital of the department is at Yagoua. Subdivisions ...

of the Far North Province. In Chad, Tupuri live near Fianga,

Fianga Subprefecture Fianga ( ar, فيانكا) is a town in Chad and capital of the Mont Illi Mont Illi or Mont d'Illi is one of four departments in Mayo-Kebbi Est, a region of Chad. Its capital is Fianga Fianga ( ar, فيانكا) is a town in Chad Ch ...

, Mayo-Kebbi Prefecture in the southwest of the country. The Tupuri are known for a dance called the ''gourna'', "the dance of the cock", which involves the dancers forming a circle and holding long sticks. The Tupuri political and religious life is headed by the

Wang Doré The Wang Doré or Wang Kulu is the chief religious and political figure of the Tupuri people. Based in the village of Doré near the Chadian town of Fianga Fianga ( ar, فيانكا) is a town in Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: T ...

, the traditional Kings of Doré, who are based in the village of Doré near Fianga, Chad.

Notes

References

* Chrispin, Pettang, directeur, ''Cameroun: Guide touristique.'' Paris: Les Éditions Wala. * Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005):
Tupuri
. ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'', 15th ed. Dallas: SIL International. Accessed 7 June 2006. * West, Ben (2004). ''Cameroon: The Bradt Travel Guide''. Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press Inc. {{Authority control