Gnawa
For the article about music, refer to Gnawa music |
Gnawas circa 1920s |
The
Gnawa or
Gnaoua refers at once to a style of
Moroccan music with
sub-Saharan Africa origins or influence, an ethnic group and religious order at least in part descended from former slaves from
Sub-Saharan Africa or black Africans migrated in
caravans with the
Trans-Saharan trade, or a combination of both. The name appears to originate from the
Saharan
Berber dialect word
aguinaw (or
agenaou), meaning "black (men)," which also was deformed in European usage to "Guinea".
In the context of music,
Gnawa musicians generally refers to people who also practice
healing rituals, with apparent ties to pre-Islamic
African animism rites. In Moroccan popular culture, Gnawas, through their
ceremonies, are considered to be experts in the magical treatment of
scorpion stings and
psychic disorders. They heal diseases by the use of colors, condensed
cultural imagery, perfumes and fright.
Gnawas play deeply
hypnotic trance music, marked by low-toned, rhythmic
sintir melodies,
call-and-response singing, hand clapping and
cymbals called
krakebs. Gnawa ceremonies use music and dance to evoke ancestral saints who can drive out evil, cure psychological ills, or remedy scorpion stings.
Gnawa music has won an international profile and appeal. Colloborators outside the
Maghreb, such as musicians
Bill Laswell,
Adam Rudolph, and
Randy Weston, have drawn on and collaborated with Gnawi musicians. Some traditionalists regard modern collaborations as a mixed blessing, leaving or modifying sacred traditions for more explicitly commercial goals. International recording artists such as
Hassan Hakmoun performing expensive spectacles for tourists who want their own experience Gnawa music and trance.
The Gnawas' population are generally believed to originate from the
Sahelian region of
West and
Central Africa, which had long and extensive trading and political ties with the
Maghreb and Morocco specifically, including gold and slave trades.
Popular history particularly credits the Moroccan Sultan
Ahmed Al Mansour Ad-Dahbi's conquest in
1591 of part of the
Songhai Empire and in particular of
Timbuktu, with bringing large numbers of captives and slaves back across the Sahara to form the Gnawa. However, the slave and gold trade with sub-Saharan African states had existed for centuries prior to al-Mansur's conquest, and it is unlikely the Gnawa community was in fact formed from one invasion but rather over centuries.
While adopting
Islam, Gnawa continued to celebrate ritual possession during rituals where they are devoted to the practice of the dances of
possession and fright. This rite of possession is called
Derdba (Arabic: دردبة), and proceeds the night (
lila, Arabic: ليلة) that is animated jointly by a Master musician (
maâlem, Arabic: معلم) accompanied by his troop. Gnawa music fused mix classical Islamic
Sufism with pre-Islamic African traditions, whether local or sub-Saharan.
Many modern Western scholars see parallels between Gnawa music and the associated Sufi tariqa and
Black Americans music such as the
blues that is rooted in Black
American slave songs, as well as with other spiritual sub-Saharan origin black groups in Africa such as the Bori in
Nigeria, the Stambouli in
Tunisia, the Sambani in
Libya, the Bilali in
Algeria, and those outside Africa, such the
Voodoo religion. These similarities in the artistic and scriptural representations are seen by such scholars as reflecting a shared experience of many African diasporic groups.
*
Haratin*
Hhaha*
Ibiblio.org: Gnawa Stories: Mystical Musician Healers from Morocco*
gnawa at the Moroccan ministry of Communication website*
WorldMusicCentral.org*
PTWMusic.com: gnawa by Chouki El Hamel at Duke University December 1, 2000*
:Etymology of Gnawa from Encyclopedia Britannica*
Many resources about gnawa at this site*
Essaouira at WorldMusicCentral.org*
gnawa at the Catholic University of America, D.C.*
gnawa at brickhaus.com*
Dar Gnawa Website
