A Free Article from

The Shamanism Magazine You may share this article in any non-commercial way

but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.(Please contact us via email - found on our website - if you wish to republish it in another publication)

Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality.It is based in West Wales, and has been published four times a year since 1993.

To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop - please visit :

www.SacredHoop.org/offer.htmlWe hope you enjoy reading the article. Nicholas Breeze Wood (editor)

SHAMANSOFISLAM

NICHOLAS BREEZE WOOD

Explores the spiritual traditions of the Moroccan Gnawa musician healers

PAGE 22 SACRED HOOP ISSUE 38 2002

If you visit Morocco, you are bound to seegroups of Gnawa, acrobats and musiciansdressed in cowrie shell-covered clothing,who twirl long tassels on their caps asthey dance to the sound of metalcastanets and drums. These publicperformances appear to be justentertainment, but deep within thetradition lies a more ancient shamanicroot, for in their all-night tranceceremonies they turn to the sacred andwork with the Jnun spirits (genie), callingupon them to help to cure the ills of theirpeople

The name ‘Gnawa’ refers firstly to aNorth African ethnic minority that has itsorigins in the West African slaves andsoldiers who were brought toMorocco from the 16thcentury onwards. Gnawacommunities trace their originsto the Sudan (Sudan is theArabic word for a BlackAfrican) so, like the term‘African-American,’ theGnawa come from diverseregions of Africa but havetaken on a collective identity inexile.

Their African backgroundis reflected in their beliefsystem, which draws onboth Islam and traditional Sub-Saharanspirituality. Many of the spirits (Jnun) inGnawi cosmology have closesimilarities to spirits from West Africa.Even though they work with the Jnun,members of the tradition still considerthemselves to be good Muslims andbehave accordingly, while their songsconstantly invoke the name of Allahand their ceremonies begin with hymnsof praise to the Prophet Mohammed.Their patron saint, Bilal, was a freedEthiopian s lave who became theProphet’s f i rst muezz in (cal ler toprayer).

LILA HEALING TRADITIONSThe second meaning of the term Gnawarefers to the people who participate in themusical and ceremonial tradition of the Lila(Arabic : night) or Derdeba (Arabic : falling -as into another world) ceremony. Theseceremonies are based around a series ofdances dedicated to seven families of saintsand Jnun, each family characterised byspecific colours, odours, flavours, feelings,

actions, and sounds, a different world,marked by transformations of all the senses.

A Lila generally lasts from sunset untildawn, but sometimes may stretch overseveral nights. The length of the ceremonydepends in part on the mood of theparticipants, the number of Jnun who must becalled upon, the seriousness of each caseneeding healing, and the resources of thesponsors who host the ceremony. Somesections may get little more than a brief run-through, but all of the families of Jnun mustbe acknowledged in the music.

The Gnawa Lila ceremonies areperformed in order to heal people whoare very sick. The aim may be to extractor remove from a person the influence ofa Jnun which has brought them illness,

infertility, stress or some other affliction;or the purpose may be to prolong apositive relationship with a Jnun that hasbrought prosperity, good fortune, or someother baraka (blessing).

Before a Lila is started, the musiciansget together with the Moqadma, thepriestess that leads the ecstatic dance andthe Ma`allem, the master of the music.Preceded by an animal sacrifice, thatassures the maintenance of the Jnun, theceremony starts with the opening and theconsecration of the sacred space, which iscalled the aada.

The musicians and devotees thenwarm up with entertainment music. Whenthey are ready to begin, all theparticipants gather outside, in front of thehouse where the ceremony is to takeplace. Drums announce to neighboursand Jnun alike that the ceremony isabout to begin, and the crowd then walkback inside the house in a candlelightprocession. The Ma`allem begins to play,and the group sings a series of songs todedicate the robes to be worn during the

ceremony, while the other participantsshare dates and milk.

The Gnawa groups are often knownas brotherhoods, and women rarely, ifever, play instruments in Gnawaceremonies. However, a largepercentage (perhaps even a majority) ofthe devotees are women, and femaleJnun figure prominently in the cosmology,and, most important, many of the mostrespected officials of the ceremony arewomen.

THE SEVEN COLOURSTheir are seven families of Jnun known asthe Melk (Mluk pl.), and they are evoked byseven distinct musical patterns, which formseven suites that make up the repertoire of

dance and music of theceremony. During these sevensuites, seven different types ofincense are burned and thedancers are covered by veils ofthe different colours.

Each of the seven familiesare made up of many Jnun,identifiable by the music playedand by the footsteps of thedances danced. Each Jnun hasparticular personalitycharacteristics, and is associatedwith a particular colour. When aJnun is invoked, the Gnawa play

its corresponding music, sing itscorresponding songs, dress the trancers inthe appropriate colours, and burn thecorresponding incense.

Because the Jnun must be invoked ina certain order, the Lila follows aprescribed pattern marked in the sensoryrealms of sound (music and song), sight(colours), smell (incense), and movement(dance).

The seven colours of the Lila are: White: in honour of the noble family ofthe Prophet Mohammed. The light of theBeginning, the overture of the Rahba,the jadba space.Dark Blue: in honour of Sidi Mousa theLord of the Sea.Light Blue: in honour of Sidi Sma, theLord of the Sky.Red: in honour of Sidi Hammou and ofthe spirits of the sacrifice.Green: in honour of the Shorfa, thenoble family of the Prophet.Black: in honour of Sidi Mimoun andLalla Mimouna and of the ancestral

SACRED HOOP ISSUE 38 2002 PAGE 23

spir its of the forest, both male andfemale.Yellow: in honour of all the female Jnun,whose personalities range from coquettishto terrifying (1).

During the ceremony some of theparticipants go into a trance (jadba) where aJnun enters them, and then expressesthrough the dancer’s mouth its desire for theappropriate tune. The trance state isdeepened by the burning of the proper spicesand incense that must be burned for thatparticular Jnun, and the dressing of the dancerin the Jnun’s colour. As the trance ceremonyends, the musicians return to lighter music torelax the spectators.

INSTRUMENTS OF GNAWA Drums figure in the Lila just as they do inpublic performances, but their ceremonialrole is relatively limited. The barbell-shapedcastanets (qaraqeb) on the other hand, areas indispensable for trance-dancing as theyare for entertainment music.

The main instrument, however, is abass lute known by a variety of names(gimbri, sintir, hajhouj). Played by theMa`allem, the gimbri has a semi-spikedconstruction(2) with a skin-coveredbody, and often bells or other rattlingmetal objects at the end of the neck.The playing style is a l i tt le l ike theAmerican banjo, also of African origin.There are other similarities betweenGnawa and African-American music; thepattern of call and response, singing andclapping (which helps both Gospelsinging and Gnawa music), while the riffsand deep percussive sound of the gimbriremind many listeners of a bass guitarfoundation in a rock band. The music hassometimes been called ‘Saharan Blues’,or the ‘Blues of the Desert’.

THE ROLE OF ISLAMIslam is often thought of as a monotheisticreligious and cultural whole. Yet in reality itoften did not obliterate the cultures thatcame before it, instead absorbing elementsof them. Islam, as found in Morocco,contains a wide range of sacred traditionswhich reflect the cultural diversity of thecountry itself. Even today, some 1,200

years after the Arabs first arrived in theland, the culture of the native animisticBerber people still flourishes in theMoroccan language, dress, and song.

Gnawa tradit ions have somesimilarity to other Islamic groups suchas the Sufi, but there is one importantdifference. Most Islamic spiritual groupstrace their spiritual authority back to afounding saint, and begin theirceremonies by reciting that saint’swritten works in Arabic. In this way,they assert their role as the spiritualdescendants of their founder. Thisgives them the authority to perform theceremony.

The Gnawa however, whose ancestorswere neither literate norspeakers ofArabic,

possessno such texts

and begin the Lila byremembering, through song and dance, the

Gnawa of times past, as well as their lands oforigin, the experiences of their slaveancestors, and their tales of abduction, sale,separation and loneliness, and ultimatelyredemption.

GNAWA TODAY In the last thirty years or so, there has beena growth in the status of the Gnawa withinMorocco with them being seen as more of acultural treasure than a primitive sub-culture, and at local, national andeven international musicfestivals, Gnawa groupsare now featureda c t s .

Additionally,interest by rock

musicians such asJimmy Page and Robert

Plant (Led Zeppelin) (3) hashelped to bring the music to the

attention of a much wider audiencein the West.Over the past fifty years in North

Africa, Gnawa music, like the Blues inAmerica, has spread and attractedmusicians from other ethnic groups, in thiscase Berber and Arab. But Gnawa musicis still mainly found where black people livein a relatively large number, forming adistinct community like the one inMarrakech.

The music has also developed into astyle of pop music for entertainment,

s o m e t i m e sfusing Westernins t rumentsand sounds withthe moretraditionalones.

B u tdespite this increased

popularity, Gnawa music, like jazz inAmerica, is not really recog-nised as a trulynational music, that term being reserved for theAndalusian style, a form of music whichdeveloped in Muslim Spain and came toMorocco with the expulsion of the Moors fromthat country in the year 1502.

Gnawa music, at its heart, is deeplyspiritual and Gnawa people have created adistinct space for themselves in Moroccansociety, playing an important social andspiritual role, whether it is entertaining thetourists or deeply entering trance andcommunicating with the Jnun spirits, thebeings who make up the unseen worlds ofcreation.

NOTES:1: These colours are in the order of the TrèqBidawi, the Path of Casablanca2: Unlike instruments such as guitars or violins, thewooden neck of a gimbri continues right down to thebottom of the instrument and the strings are fixed toit there so that their tension is supported by thewhole neck length. This type of instrument is knownas a ‘spiked instrument’. 3: Gwana musicians and instruments appear on theRobert Plant and Jimmy Page MTV Unplugged‘Unledded’ CD and the video of the concert hasfootage of them performing with traditionalmusicians in Morocco.

Further recordings of Gnawa music can be found onAmazon.co.uk - simply type in the word ‘Gnawa’ for alist of available titles. See also the review pages of thisIssue of Sacred Hoop.

PHOTOS:Page 22 (top): A dancer dressed in the colour ofthe Jnun who is dancing him falls at the feet of agimbri player. (bottom): the instruments of theGnawa, gimbri, drum and qaraqeb castanets.Page 23: A group of musician entertainers in aMoroccan street.Page 24: Members of the musical group GnawaSidi Mimoun of Casablanca.Page 25: (top) Gimbri bass lute. (bottom) Preparingfor the sacrifice that precedes the Lila.

© Antonio Baldassarre and The Association SidiMimoun, except for the gimbri © Nicholas Wood.

SACRED HOOP ISSUE 38 2002 PAGE 25