The Likpe or Bakpεle people are aboriginal agriculturalist Sεkpεle or Sεkua-speaking sub-ethnic group belonging to the larger Guan ethnolinguistic group living in the fertile hills and valleys in the Guan District of the Oti Region of Ghana.

The Likpe people call themselves Bakpεle (people of Kpele) and their language as Sεkpεle or Sεkua. It’s a Guan language which forms part of Volta-Cameo sub-family of Kwa languages and the larger Niger-Congo language phylum. The Central Language Committee has agreed to refer to the language as Sεkpεle.

Historically, the ancestors of the Bakpεle (Likpe) migrated alongside other Guan groups from the ancient Ghana Empire between AD 1054 and 1076. Helen Nana Mensah in her work, “The Religious Rights of Death of the Likpe Guans of Ghana”, published in the 2016 volume work, “ the Bakpεle arrived in the Gold Coast ( now Ghana) in the early part of 12th century and moved south-eastward along the Volta valley. As they moved along, the groups formed settlements on their way. The Bakpεle had to leave the settlement as a result of serious hostilities from the neighboring ethnic groups.