Sao/Kotoko Tribe Collection

The Kotoko are a Chadic ethnic group who live in the south of Lake Chad, near the lower Logone and Chari Rivers, northern Cameroon and Nigeria. They governed a West African kingdom that ruled over wide swaths of northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria until the Kanuri of the Bornu kingdom overcame them in the 15th century. The Kotoko can trace their history back to the Sao people, who were early inhabitants of the Lake Chad region who converted to Islam in the 16th century.