A great day for Gnaoua music

Gnawa musicians in Marrakech, Morocco. Tim Gerard Barker / Getty Images

12/13/2019

Gnaoua music was inscribed on Thursday, December 12th in the intangible heritage of Unesco, a consecration for this repertoire of North African spiritual songs. It was Morocco that made the request. Every year, since 1997, the port of Essaouira hosts the largest gnaoua music festival in the world.

The gnawa is first a very old brotherhood . The tradition goes back at least to the 16th century, among groups of former slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. Forced to adopt Islam, the first gnaouas mixed it with the animist rites of the Sahel. According to the dossier presented by Morocco, this art " refers to a set of musical productions, performances, practices and ceremonial therapeutic rituals where the layman mixes with the sacred ". Dressed in colorful costumes, the Gnawa musicians play on a kind of three-stringed drum lute (a guembri), consisting of a round neck that sinks into a dromedary skin sound box, accompanied by steel castanets called qraqeb. The harmonies of voices and the throbbing rhythms call to the trance.

At the same time mystical and therapeutic, this music was long marginalized before the creation of the famous Essaouira Festival . " From the moment when this musical tradition, this art, is inscribed in the universal heritage, it becomes a collegial responsibility, a shared responsibility, it becomes a commitment of everything to everyone, we all have the duty to work on the transmission, to the durability, the perpetuation of this oral tradition , explains Neila Tazi, the founder of the festival.It must be remembered it is an oral tradition that has existed for centuries, generations and today we face the challenge, the need, to have to open even more to ensure its durability, its transmission to the future generations and it is this question too which is very important.The Gnawa themselves did not believe it, 25 years ago. such recognition, it must be remembered that it is a very popular culture, a marginalized culture, and today the new generations, the future generations will feel invested with the duty to continue and above all to feel proud to continue this tradition " .

Over time, Gnaoua music is exported. Recalling the rhythms of jazz or blues, it attracts many sizes. Led Zeppelin, Pat Metheny, Didier Lockwood or Marcus Miller, all came to Morocco to play alongside the greatest Maalems, the master musicians who set the pace. At the 2019 edition of the Gnaoua and World Music Festival in Essaouira , a tribute was paid to a great jazz figure, Randy Weston, a lover of Gnaoua music.

© RFI / Laurence Aloir

Today, this Gnaoua tradition is entering the world music Hall of Fame. She is now a pride for Moroccans. More and more young people in villages or big cities continue to perpetuate this tradition.

► To read also : Khalil Mounji and the revival of Gnaoua music
►Also listen to: Laurence Aloir's live sessions during the 22nd edition of the Essaouira Festival

By: RFI Music

Morocco - World Music - Heritage

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