Many African Americans can trace their ancestry back to a variety of tribes in Africa, and many tribes were historically nomads that traveled all throughout Africa and the whole entire world thousands of years before slavery. The earliest known vessels were built in ancient Africa over 40,000 years ago, so it should come as no surprise that Africans had an early head start at exploring the world, and they left the piece of their culture everywhere they went. The Ticard tribe is only one of many nomadic tribes that settled in many different parts of Africa. Oral tradition traces their origin back to the Nau River Valley, which is modern day Sudan. They speak a modern Ben Toit language called Ticard. They now inhabit the Bimenda grass fields in Cameroon. They are closely related to the Bimalic gay people. When they inhabited Sudan, they lived adjacent to the Marol Kingdom, as well as the ancestors of the Fulani people. They lived along the Nau River where they developed cattle grazing, iron making, horseback riding, and their fighting skills. The Ticard people relocated to Cameroon around 933 CE. They settled in the northeast region near Lake Chad and Adamawa. They established their own village there called the Anganha. They called their chiefs Fann. Naya Sana became the first to establish a fandom and created a royal lineage. The Ticard people continued to migrate and they ended up in the Bimenda Plateau region. With the skills they brought over from Sudan, the king was efficient enough to rule most of the northern and central region of Cameroon. The Ticard empire had strong political traditions. At its height it had 15 kingdoms. The Nganbe was the largest and it birthed future kings and the ruling class. All kingdoms were ran by a faan that supervised nobles, big-time farming producers, military leaders, merchants, and town leaders. Ticard military soldiers protected the region with superior weapons and they were skilled at fighting on horseback. They maintained domestic peace and imposed hefty taxes on other ethnic groups. A caste system did exist but regardless of your status, Ticard typically lived a very good life. They were known for their sophisticated government, their war abilities, and the arts including mask making. They developed a process using hot wax to make masks and bronze structures. Many Ticard people were also gifted in dancing, music, writing, and acting. Ticard boys took part in vocational training and they learned various forms of craft making as well as wood and mass carving and creating bronze structures. They were the only ones in the area that could smoke iron. Their artistry put them at the center of trade. For centuries the Ticard people ruled over Cameroon with an iron fist. Naya Sanna's direct descendant took Gakor, ruled from 1186 to 1217. Princess Wutan established the Ticard dynasty in 1299. She ruled for over 30 years. The Ticard now contains over 42 ethnic groups. By the 1800s, several ethnic groups joined the Europeans to fight the Ticard people. They were known for their quick ability to learn. However, their sophistication earned them the title of Most Envy amongst a few neighboring tribes. This caused them to be caught in the middle of Europeans that wanted to enslave them and jealous neighbors. The Ticard people failed to obtain modern weapons to defend and take control of the coast. They were forced to relocate due to the lack of protection on their traditional grassy and savanna plains. They tried digging moats around their villages to protect themselves from their enemies, but this attempt failed. Many of them ended up having to hide and forest in order to escape slavery, Islamization, and Christianization. Some escaped and some were captured and enslaved and forced to convert. The transatlantic slave trade unfortunately drained some of their most physically fit and intelligent young people. Being that they were greatly weakened by war and the slave trade, they became vulnerable to neighboring groups who had been subjected by the Ticard for centuries and wanted revenge. By the time slavery ended, there were only about 100,000 Ticards in Cameroon, and most of them were hiding out in nearby forests. The Ticard people split into smaller villages to try to escape slave hunters. Today, they live in small and scattered related groups in the northwestern highlands near the Nigerian border. The conversion of some of the Ticard to Islam caused an even further divide between them. Many of them speak different languages as a result of slave owners intentionally separating the people that spoke the same language during the Atlantic slave trade. However, many of them are still aware of their ancestors and culture in common. Ticard masks were used during agricultural ceremonies such as during the harvest. They believe that soil is sacred and belongs to the ancestors. Therefore, once there was successful harvest, they used their handcraft and masks to celebrate. Their main crops are cocoa, coffee, bananas, plantains, sugar cane, cassava, and many more.