Tarok people

The Tarok people call themselves oTárók, their language iTárók and their land ìTàrók . They are found principally in Langtang-North, Langtang-South, Wase, Mikang and Kanke Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Plateau State in Central Nigeria . Their main town of Langtang is located about 186 kilometres south-east of Jos, the state capital . They are also found in large numbers in Shendam, Qua'an-Pan, Kanam, Pankshin LGAs and some part of Tafawa Balewa LGA of Bauchi state the Sur (Tapshin) . Scattered in Nasarawa and Taraba states are Tarok farming communities . The people have been described to some extent in anthropological and ethnographical works by Fitzpatrick (1910), Roger Blench, Lamle (1995), Famwang and Longtau (1997) . The oTárók is an amalgamation of various peoples who now form a more or less ‘homogeneous’ group . The constituents were of Pe, Ngas, Jukun, Boghom, Tel (Montol) and probably Tal origins, while others still remain obscure or unknown .

In the literature, other names have been used for Tarok as Appa, Yergam and its variants of Yergum and Yergem . The name Tarok itself has been wrongly spelt by some as Taroh. The name Appa on the other hand is used by the Jukun to refer to oTarok as a friendship term . These fresh insights are pointing to a conclusion that Tarok was a nickname given to the Tal/Ngas immigrants. The name of the original group is lost and has been replaced by the nickname . The term Pe-Tarok refers to the people who first spoke the original form of the language called Tarok today the mismatch notwithstanding . The origins of the peoples may be a knotty topic, but it is clear that Proto-Tarok is the parent of the language which is known as Tarok today (whatever might have been their original name).

Longtau described Tarok as one of the Benue–Congo languages which is almost completely submerged in a sea of Chadic languages . These languages include Ngas, Tel, Boghom, Hausa and Yiwom . Its non-Chadic neighbours are Pe, Jukun-Wase and Yangkam. Tarok has spread considerably in the twentieth century and it now borders Wapan in the South-East . The Chadic languages belong to a different language family called Afroasiatic . Longtau explained that Tarok had settled in their present abode long before the Eastern and Southward movements of Boghom and Ngas respectively.

Nankap Elias Lamle (2001) an anthropologist lecturing at the University of Jos in Nigeria stated that in the early twentieth century people from other ethnic groups such as Tal, Ngas, Jukun, Tel (Montol/Dwal) and Youm (Garkawa) migrated and settled together with the initial Timwat and Funyallang clans. People from these ethnic groups came as migrants labour workers. The Timwat and Funyallang people gave them land to settle in Tarokland after they have served the former. Colonialism and Christianity came into Tarokland by 1904 (Lamle 1995). The initial inhabitants could not trust the missionaries and colonialists as such did not encourage their people to join them. with the introduction of modernism the later migrants to Tarokland used their connections to the missionaries and colonialists to acquire western education and join the army. Today these latter migrants are at the helm of affairs in Nigeria as such tries to use their influence to change history (cf. Lamle 2005).