The Gnawa are a brotherhood of musicians of Saharan origin whose style rests on songs, dances and syncretic rituals as a means of entering a trance. The term also refers to the musical style of sub-Saharan reminiscences practiced by these brotherhoods or by the musicians who draw inspiration from them. It is today one of the main genres of Moroccan folklore.
Bilad Al-Soudan, a designation referring to sub-Saharan Africa, was a well of human resources for any power taking part in the slave trade, exchanging salt, textiles and metals for slaves destined for armies, agriculture or the construction of cities and fortresses.
These slaves, coming mainly from the regions of present-day Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal, crossed the Sahara on foot. The union of the different cultures generated by the sub-Saharan diaspora, over time, created an interesting fusion reflected through the various cultural samples, all culminating in today’s Gnawa culture.
Moreover, the etymology of the word gnawa finds its root in Chleuh in the word “agnaw”, meaning “the mute”, for the slaves, ancestors of this community, hardly knew how to speak the local dialects.
Gnawa music loses itself in its own history, sources on the subject being scarce, but it remains evident that it stems from ancient animist rituals of West Africa, still present in its practices today and naturally reworked to be in conformity with Islam. During the nocturnal ceremonies called “lila de derdeba” (night of possession), the Gnawa enter a hypnotic trance through music and dances evoking marabouts and protective saints. These saints hold a supposed panoply of powers, ranging from the expulsion of demons and the healing of psychic troubles to the healing of various wounds (scorpion stings, spider bites […]).
This musical style will certainly radiate over a large part of North Africa, but it is most particularly in the city of Essaouira, a great historic trading port and a true North African crossroads, that Gnawa culture will be born and cultivated. Inspiration there is visibly interchangeable, its houses and ramparts having soaked up the musical styles of the genre whose capital it will become.
Today, Essaouira hosts throughout the year numerous festivals and events tied to Gnawa music, culture and heritage. It is only through these events that the brew of emotions conjured by Gnawa melodies is passed on.
This art has managed to export itself beyond the ramparts of Essaouira, having even inspired groups such as Nass El Ghiwane and the Orchestre National de Barbes, but also Western artists like the emblematic Jimi Hendrix, the latter having been marked by Gnawa magic after a journey to Morocco.
The music group Innov Gnawa earned, in turn, a Grammy Awards nomination in the United States in 2018. The following year, Morocco inscribes Gnawa on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
