Kel Owi

Kel-Owi, the dominant Tuaregs of the Air or Asben oasis, Central Sahara, which they reached from an unknown region in the north-west about 1750. Here they partly supplanted, partly amalgamated with, the Negro (Hausa) aborigines from Sudan; so that the Kel-Owi, although claiming to rank with the noblest of the Imoshagh peoples, are no longer of pure Tuareg stock; hence their dark complexion and other traces of black blood. But the Kel-Owi Confederacy, of which the chief divisions are the Irholan, Kel-Azaneres, Ikezkezan, Kel-Tafidet, and Kel-Fares, is very powerful, controlling the political and commercial relations throughout south Central Sahara, and capable of mustering at least 10,000 armed- warriors mounted for the most part on swift dromedaries. The total population certainly exceeds 50,000, a very large number in this thinly-peopled region.