The Tangba or Taneka are not descendants from a single ethnic group but are actually made up of several populations who have taken refuge in these mountainous lands to escape the various threats that plagued their original lands, threats such as slave trafficking or incursions of foreign armies.

Each population brought with it its own traditions, rituals and ceremonies, keeping them during time, but influencing one another, for example, in the practice of some rituals.

The origins differences can still be found today, for example facial scarification is different for every ethnicity and allows to identify an individual belonging to a given ethnicity.

The Kabye are identified by the presence on the face of 2 small scarifications for both men and women, while the Bariba are recognizable by a deep cut on one side of the face or on both sides and finally the Gourmantche with 4 cuts on the face for women and 3 for men.

Also the practiced religion is a method to identify the origins, the Kabye are animists, while the Bariba are muslims, even though they practice animist rituals, as well as the Gourmantche who are faithful to the religion of Islam.

Even the roles within the society are related to the ethnicity of origin, the king is often of the Bariba ethnicity, while spiritual dignitaries and land chefs, ie those who are responsible for assigning land to families, belong to the ethnicity that first inhabited these lands ie the Kabye.

What is shared by the Kabye, the Bariba and the Gourmantche, in addition to the use of the same language, yom, is the lifestyle of agriculture and the ability to live peacefully, succeeding in creating a society that differs greatly from the closed and distrusted tribes that are usually found in Africa.