Gnawa


The Gnawa are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco in the Maghreb.
The name Gnawa had probably originated in the indigenous language of North Africa and the Sahara Desert. The phonology of this term according to the grammatical principles of Berber is as follows: agnaw, ignawen, which means slave.
Gnawa was inscribed in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

History

The Gnawa population is generally believed to originate from the Sahelian region of West and Central Africa which had long and extensive trading and political ties with Morocco
The Gnawa are an ethnic group who were brought to Northern parts of North Africa by the Berber as slaves, their ancestry is traced to southern regions of Morocco and sub saharan Africa. After the Islamization of the Berber and the abolition of slavery, they became a part of the Sufi order in Maghreb.
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 Jedba.

Gnawa and music

Gnawa music mixes classical Islamic Sufism with pre-Islamic African traditions, whether local or sub-Saharan.
The term 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 music, marked by low-toned, rhythmic melodies played on a skin-covered lute called sintir or guembri, call-and-response singing, hand clapping and cymbals called krakeb. 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. Many Western musicians including Bill Laswell, Brian Jones, Randy Weston, Adam Rudolph, Tucker Martine, Robert Plant, Jacob Collier and Jimmy Page, have drawn on and collaborated with Gnawa musicians such as Mahmoud Guinia. 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 have introduced Gnawa music and dance to Western audiences through their recordings and concert performances.
The centre for Gnawa music is Essaouira in the southwest of Morocco where the Gnaoua World Music Festival is held annually. The Gnawa of Marrakesh hold their annual festival at the sanctuary of Moulay Brahim in the Atlas Mountains.
The Gnawa of Khamlia hold their annual festival in August at the village Khamlia in Erg Chebbi.

On-line sources

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