Gnoua Brotherhood of Marrakesh | de

The term Gnoua/Gnaoua/Gnawa refers firstly to a North African ethnic minority that traces its origins to West African slaves and soldiers. Gnawa communities in the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) trace their origins to sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, like the term "African-American," Gnawa refers to a group of people whose ancestors came from diverse regions of Africa but took on a collective identity in exile. Secondly the term is used to define a religious/spiritual order consisting of aforementioned Moroccan Black Muslims, and thirdly a music style connected to this order. While the Gnawa people have retained many of the customs, rituals and beliefs of their ancestors, their music is the most preserved trait.

Over the past fifty years in north Africa, Gnawa music, like the Blues in America, has spread and attracted practitioners from other ethnic groups, in this case Berber and Arab. Although most present-day Gnawa musicians are metisse and speak Arabic and Berber, some West African religious words and phrases do survive even though their meaning is lost. But Gnawa music is found mainly where black people live in a relatively large number; large enough to form a distinctive community like the one in Marrakesh. The city is known historically to have slave markets connected to the trans-Saharan slave trade.

Gnawa people have created a distinct space in Moroccan society. They play a social and spiritual role as well as perform entertainment. Gnawa music is spiritual music that is significantly used for therapy. They claim possessing skills to cure insanity and free people from malign influences. They believe that God is too powerful for bilateral communication and direct manifestation that He can only be reached through spiritual manifestations in our world.

They perform trance ceremonies called derdeba (possession rite) which generally takes place at nighttime for this reason it is also called al-layla (meaning the night in Arabic). The Gnawa believe that many misfortunes that happen to people are not just accidental or inevitable but they could be caused by evil spirits. That’s why some people from all walks of life under the affliction from some acute illness, infertility, or depression come to seek Gnawa’s intercession. Sometimes some people would seek their intercession for the purpose to preserve the good fortune.

The ceremony is performed all night long. The orchestra constitutes of many musicians: the m'allem (lead musician or maestro) plays the guenbri (a three-stringed bass lute) and other members of the group play drums and karkaba (metallic castanets). Generally they all dance as well. Music and dance are one thing to the Gnawa. .