Kel Owey
Encyclopedia
The Kel Owey are a Tuareg clan confederation which from the 18th century until the advent of French colonial rule
French colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

 at the beginning of the 20th century was a dominant power in the Air region of north central Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

.

History

The Kel Owey have, like many Tuareg confederations been both a sub-group of other confederations and the dominant power over other clans. In 1740 the Kel Owey moved south from modern Algeria and destroyed the town of Assodé
Assodé
Assodé was a town in the Aïr Mountains in what is now northern Niger. Founded around the eleventh century, it was long the most important Tuareg town, benefiting from trans-Saharan trade, and declining with it from the eighteenth century...

, sacked Agadez
Agadez
-Sources:* Aboubacar Adamou. "Agadez et sa région. Contribution à l'étude du Sahel et du Sahara nigériens", Études nigériennes, n°44, , 358 p.* Julien Brachet. Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé . Paris: Le Croquant, , 324 p. ISBN : 978-2-91496865-2.*. Saudi Aaramco...

, placed the Sultanate of Agadez
Sultanate of Agadez
The Sultanate of Agadez is a traditional polity of the Aïr region centered in the city of Agadez, at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in north central Niger. It was founded in 1449 by the Tuareg, then conquered by the Songhai Empire in 1500. After the defeat of Songhai in 1591, the sultanate...

 under their control, and dispersed the Kel Ayr
Kel Ayr
Kel Ayr were a semi-nomadic Tuareg tribal confederation which ruled an area centered on the Aïr Mountains in what is today Niger....

 to the south and west. The confederation was then under the direct suzerainary of the Anastafidet, lord of the Kel Owey. Heinrich Barth
Heinrich Barth
Heinrich Barth was a German explorer of Africa and scholar.Barth is one of the greatest of the European explorers of Africa, not necessarily because of the length of his travels or the time he spent alone without European company in Africa, but because of his singular character.-Biography:Barth...

 passed through the Aouderas valley with a Kel Owey trans-Saharan caravan in 1850, and reported that it was only recently that the Kel Owey had pushed the Kel Gres
Kel Gres
The Kel Gress are a Toureg confederation of clans who in the modern era have mostly lived in south central Niger, though who have a history of occupation of the Air Mountains prior to the 17th century...

 and Kel Itesen Tuareg south and west out of the valley. When the French appeared in force in the 1890s, they found the nomadic the Kel Owey confederation allied now to a confederation led by the Kel Ayr
Kel Ayr
Kel Ayr were a semi-nomadic Tuareg tribal confederation which ruled an area centered on the Aïr Mountains in what is today Niger....

, but remaining the dominant power from the Air Mountains
Aïr Mountains
The Aïr Mountains is a triangular massif, located in northern Niger, within the Sahara desert...

 south to Damergu just north of Zinder
Zinder
Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...

.

Central Saharan trade

Throughout the 19th century the Kel Owey controlled the central of three main trade routes from the West African Sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....

 to the Mediterranean. Kel Owey caravans carried hides, gold, ostrich feathers and slaves north from the borders of the Sokoto Caliphate, beginning in Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...

, Zinder
Zinder
Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...

, Agadez
Agadez
-Sources:* Aboubacar Adamou. "Agadez et sa région. Contribution à l'étude du Sahel et du Sahara nigériens", Études nigériennes, n°44, , 358 p.* Julien Brachet. Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé . Paris: Le Croquant, , 324 p. ISBN : 978-2-91496865-2.*. Saudi Aaramco...

, the Air, to Ghat
Ghat
Ghat is the capital of the Ghat District in the Fezzan region of southwestern Libya.-History:In historical times, Ghat was a major terminal point on the Trans-Saharan trade route and a major administrative center in the Fezzan...

 and Ghadames
Ghadames
Ghadames or Ghadamis is an oasis town in the Nalut District of the Fezzan region in southwestern Libya.-Geography:Ghadames lies roughly to the southwest of Tripoli, near the borders with Algeria and Tunisia. Ghadames borders Illizi Province, Algeria and Tataouine Governorate, Tunisia.The oasis...

. The Kel Owey also for some time controlled the Agadez centered trade in salt and dates, called the Azalai
Azalai
The Azalai is a semi annual salt caravan route practiced by Tuareg traders in the Sahara desert, or the act of traveling with a caravan along that route.- History :...

. This trade was supplemented by grain grown in the fertile Air by bonded servile Tuareg classes, conquered communities, and slaves working plantation estates witnessed by Barth. Barth stayed at a series of estates held by the family of Annur, a high ranking Kel Owey noble, as well as those held by the Anastafidet himself, commenting on their extensive size, geographic spread, and the relative lack of restrictions on the labourers who were, technically, often first generation slaves. Barth reports the in the Air seeing the southernmost use of plow agriculture, and detailing Kel Owey plantations, trade villages, and weigh stations deep in the territory of their southern neighbors at Tessawa and Damagaram, and mixed into the territory controlled by the Imazureg Tuareg around Gangara. From the date plantations and salt basins of the Kaouar
Kaouar
The Kaouar, or Kaouar Cliffs is a north-south escarpment running some 150 km in north east Niger. Surrounded by the Ténéré desert and the dunes of the Erg of Bilma, easterly winds striking the 100 meter high escarpment of Kaouar provide easy access to groundwater for ten oases on the leeward side...

, huge caravans transported good south to Zinder and Kano.

20th century

After participating in a number of rebellions against French rule and being particularly hard hit by a series of famines in the second decade of the 1900s, their noble and warrior clans were almost destroyed, and some others of their constituent elements have been largely subsumed by other Toureg "Kel"s. The Kel Owey remain powerful in the central Air Massif, especially in the Bagzane plateau.

See also

  • Tuareg
    • Kel Adagh
      Kel Adagh
      The Kel Adagh are a Toureg confederation of clans living in the region of the Adrar des Iforas highlands in Mali. The name comes from Tamasheq "Kel" and "Adagh"...

    • Kel Ahaggar
      Kel Ahaggar
      Kel Ahaggar is a Tuareg confederation in the Ahaggar Mountains in Algeria. The confederation is believed to have been founded by Tin Hinan, with the "official" founding being around 1750...

    • Kel Ajjer
      Kel Ajjer
      Kel Ajjer is a Tuareg confederation in western Libya and eastern Algeria. Their main stronghold was Ghat, with Ubari coming second. They speak the language Tamahaq.-See also:* Azjar*Tuareg**Kel Adagh**Kel Ahaggar**Kel Ayr...

    • Kel Ayr
      Kel Ayr
      Kel Ayr were a semi-nomadic Tuareg tribal confederation which ruled an area centered on the Aïr Mountains in what is today Niger....

    • Kel Gres
      Kel Gres
      The Kel Gress are a Toureg confederation of clans who in the modern era have mostly lived in south central Niger, though who have a history of occupation of the Air Mountains prior to the 17th century...

    • Aulliminden
      Aulliminden
      The Iwellemmedan are one of the seven major Tuareg tribal or clan confederations...

      : Kel Ataram (west) and Kel Dinnik (east)

Also consult

  • GAGNOL L., MOREL A., 2003. Les Touaregs Kel Owey du massif de l’Aïr (Niger) : peut-on parler d’une identité montagnarde ? Actes du colloque "Identié(s)", Poitiers, MSHS, pp. 115-126.
  • A. Bourgeot., 1994. L’agro-pastoralisme des Touaregs Kel Owey (Aïr). Au contact Sahara-Sahel. Milieux et sociétés du Niger Volume I. pp.137-156.
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