Gnawa/Gnaoua Music : The Vibration of Morocco
Gnawa / Gnaoua Music: the Vibration of Morocco
by Burcin Yetim
How can we introduce you to Gnawa/Gnaoua music?
Talking about this ancestral Gnaoua music without falling into every misinterpretation and touristic cliché available is a challenge.
I thought that there was no better choice than taking you along with me through my research journey.
Natural as the ripple effect of a stone falling into the water, I tried to follow the complex and unpredictable turns that this musical genre and its name, have been through.
Read on to discover the meaning of these Gnawa connected words, that you may hear:
- Guembri
- Qarquba
- Maallem
- Darbala
- Chachiya
- Lila
Approaching Gnawa/Gnaoua
When you first arrive in Morocco, unless you have a vivid interest in music, you have probably never heard of Gnawa/Gnaoua music. Walking through the Médinas you will start to recognise it. The melody brought to you by the crispy mountain air, dry desert wind or by the humid, padded ocean breeze is the same.
These repetitive sounds come out of radios, music shops, little trucks that transport triple the size of their size. Street performers wear the typical cloth (Darbala), the hat (Chachiya) and turn their heads. They move it like a helix so the long string hanging at the centre of the hat catches your attention.
While you walk with eyes, nostrils and ears wide open, you’ll soon notice the common background soundtrack of your memories.
Fingers slapping robust strings made of animal intestines, head following the music with the same dedication as a Cobra performs its hypnotic, undulating movement.
Everything joined by the cheerful metallic clash of the Qarqaba, big castanets accompanying the pounding rhythm of the Guembri or Guimbri – the African Bass.
Made originally of wood, leather and bones or metal. This instrument is the symbol of the Gnawa generation of modern Morocco.
If you are not blessed with the gift of a musical ear, you most probably will follow my thought processes easier than listening to a lecture on this raw kind of music.
So, what is Gnawa/Gnaoua music?
The ancestral roots of this music are in Africa and branched out in so many directions, flowing and brewing into more complicated rituals and social mores.
In a nutshell, Gnawa is what this movement generated in Morocco as poetry, prayer and healing vessel. Played by the main Master – the Maallem – during long celebrations happening at night in a celebration named Lila (night in Arabic).
A spiritual ascending towards a “rebirth” which arrives with the first lights of the day.
What we are speaking about does not appear as a senseless act of ecstatic joy or uncontrollable energy bursts.
Instead it is a glimpse into another world that leaves us feeling that our own world lacks complexity and colour.
The Ritual
The Lila is carefully followed by the knowledge of a woman referred to as Priestess.
This woman meticulously follows the order of actions required by the ritual.
Colour by colour, incense after incense she gets to evoke the 7 saints. The full ritual terminates with an animal sacrifice which, for obvious reasons, is never performed in the ceremonies that we would have the chance to witness as a “performance”.
In a wider religious, spiritual and magical list of traditional practices, we have familiar scenarios in South America and North America in the African-American communities. These communities verbally transmitted the culture and faith in these rituals (Candomblé, for example).
These practices comforted the souls of millions of people. They found themselves uprooted, and somehow created some of the strangely positive consequences of western colonialism, on a larger scale.
Why positive? Because it shows us with facts how everything is strictly connected, if only we stop and look, listen, follow.
Etymology of the word Gnawa/Gnaoua
The romantic beauty of a verbally passed tradition is enchanting. It aims to speak about human connections and the flow of the human experience.
On the other hand, it is utopistic to satisfy curiosity with basic research.
That’s where I got a little confused.
Shall I trust all I hear or read? Will the people that I am asking these questions to, give me the tourist charmer answer or the real deal?
From what I discovered, the word Gnawa\Gnaoua derives from the Amazigh dialect of the Sahara “agnaou” and that means black tanned men and stranger, according to the use.
This word then became its name of use. The persistent, repetitive sounds created by the voices of the slaves and the sounds of their chains.
Gnawing
Casually, I encountered the word “gnawing” and wondered if the assonance could take us somewhere.
It originates in the Germanic language lineage and used as ”gnagen” in the old English, and as “nagen” in German.
Gnaw in English is a synonym of munch, erode, consume, fret, devour, nag, torment, distress, oppress, lingering, constant, imitative, repetitive. That is to list a few!
If we think of what Gnawa/Gnaoua is in our head, we hear the tormented chanting and nagging of the qarqabas..
These words suit one of the faces of this genre.
Even though Britain never colonized Morocco, in 1551 they started a relationship based on diplomacy and trading. This relationship continued into the period of the black diaspora, resulting in a constant presence of Britain on Moroccan land.
This, makes the assonance between Gnawa/Gnaoua and Gnawing more than just a matter of sound.
The “African Bass” – Guembri
Guembri (or Guimbri) is from the family of the lute, and it has been rightfully renowned as the African bass.
This instrument creates depth and dynamic.
By plucking the 3 strings and tapping onto the soundbox you can hear both sounds – both the percussion-like effect and humming that the Guembri is able to produce.
A Guembri master (Maallem) is a person that makes the guembri and who follows his family’s musical and spiritual tradition.
There is at the present moment, at least three woman Guembri players and hopefully many more to come;
- Asmaa Hamzaoui
- Hasna el Becharia
- Hind Ennaira
Besides its musical qualities, the repetitive sound is also conceived to facilitate the trance state. To evoke the spirits and offer them donations to make them happy and benevolent regarding the requests of the participants.
Why the Trance?
To be in a state of trance makes you ready to cross over to the unseen dimension, where everything is possible and where the spirits live.
Incense and livestock. Fabrics and dates. These goods are offered to the spirits to ensure they will not “harm” anyone and so the ancestral ritual can be performed and experienced safely.
Repetitiveness gives access to the past in the present moment. It has a purpose of bringing the old to the surface and setting it free by healing it.
All tribal, spiritual practices, evoke a lingering, at times muttering sound to connect us to our higher spirit.
The Afro-American Blues and the Afro-American church is a greater example of how this practice is both spiritual and musical. The ritual connects, soothes, gives relief to people who come together by some sort of common grief.
The Desert Blues Kings
From this presentation of Gnawa/Gnaoua, we can glimpse the vast ancestral panorama which bonds all cultures – therefore – all religions.
Gnawa/Gnaoua started its ascension towards becoming one of the most remarkable examples of tribal raw music that is still alive. This, thanks to its deep roots and to the help of inspiring visionaries such as Jane Loveless. You can learn about the impact of Jane’s vision on the Moroccan music scene and about the history of slavery in our following blog posts.
The Gnawa/Gnaoua World Festival that Jane created can easily be nominated as THE Real Meltin’pot and it is from the roots of the Gnawa influence that desert blues began.
North African Desert Blues is a Sub Saharan branch of music that traveled its way up from the centre of the world until it spilled out as the “Voice of the Desert”. This genre is connected to Gnawa music by the bass sound and vibration. Both speak from the soul – one to make a spiritual connection through it and one to speak of the struggles of it.
Tinariwen
Major exponents of this genre are Tinariwen. An Algerian band (most precisely, North Mali) founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib.
You most likely already heard their music if you have north African friends (together with Nass al Ghiwane). Tinariwen have been well known in Europe since the early years of 2000.
They now form a bigger collective of 9 touring members and as many non touring ones. The younger members do not have the same life experience as elder members – such as military conflicts. Two generation’s evolution happening before their eyes.
The time lapse in which they found themselves, gave them the opportunity to integrate acoustic, electric guitars and bass guitars. They push the boundaries that led them to make the Desert Blues.
Hope and courage travel with this music and in these songs born from desperation.
Now there is also determination and gratitude for the sense of belonging that never dimmed or lost intensity.
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We are curious to learn more and if any of you have a musical interest or more information, we would be happy to read your opinion, discoveries and feelings about it in the comments, so please, go ahead!