Tuareg people

The Tuareg, Amazigh veil-wearers of the Sahara, 1.2 to 3 million people from Libya to Nigeria, move camel caravans between the Mediterranean world and the Sudan. Their Berber languages, Tamasheq, Tamahaq, Tamajeq and Tawellemmet, carry the tifinagh script, one of Africa's few native alphabets. Descended of the indigenous Berbers, perhaps of the Garamantes of Fezzan who ruled the desert from the first millennium BCE to the fifth century CE, the Tuareg built sultanates at Agadez and taxed every salt, slave and kola road crossing the sand. Men veil, women unveil; matrilineal nobles, vassals, smiths and former slaves order the tent. Semi-nomadic Muslims, they rebelled against French, Malian and Nigerien rule in waves, most recently the Azawad rising. Tinariwen guitars, camel festivals and Tamasheq schools keep the free people of the desert free. Agadez leatherworkers still tool the crosses of the south. Camel caravans still tax the salt roads crossing the sand. Tifinagh letters mark rocks and wells across the whole desert.