Gnawa

"Gnawa" or "Gnaoua" (in Arabic چنّاوة) is a group of musicians who might be descendants of former slaves originating from Sub-Saharan Africa or came freely to Morocco with Caravans during the Trans-Saharan trade trade, or both. Their name in Arabic could possibily indicate that they came from the old Ghana Empire, which has no connection with modern day Ghana. The same word also refers to a small part of these people who are musicians and ritual healers and thus bringing the rite of African animism with them. Gnawas are considered to be experts in the treatment of scorpion stings and psychic disorders. They heal the disease by the use of colors, the perfumes and fright.

Rituals

Gnawas perform a complex liturgy, called lila or derdeba. The ceremony recreates the first sacrifice and the genesis of the universe by the evocation of the seven main manifestations of the divine demiurgic activity. It calls the seven saints and supernatural entities (mluk, in Arabic ملوك) represented by seven colors, as a prismatic decomposition of the original light/energy. The derdeba is jointly animated by a maâlem (the master musician) at the lead of his troop and by woman-conspicuous who gets in charge of the accessories and clothing necessary to the ritual.

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During the ceremony, the conspicuous one governs the accessories and clothing ritual necessary. On the other hand, the maâlem, using the guembri and by burning incenses, calls the saints and the supernatural entities to present itself in order to take possession of the followers who will devote themselves to fright.

Related Topics:
Incenses - Saints - Supernatural

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Inside the brotherhood, each group (zriba; in Arabic زريبة) gets together with an initiation (moqadma; in Arabic مقدمة), the priestess that leads the ecstatic dance called jedba (in Arabic جدبة), and with the maâlem, the master of the guembri, who is accompanied by several players of krakebs.

Related Topics:
Arabic

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Preceded by an animal sacrifice, that assures the maintenance of the presents, the night-ritual starts with the opening and the consecration of the space, the aâda ( "habit" or traditional form; in Arabic عادة), when the gnawa musicians perform a swirling acrobatic dance, playing the krakebs.

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The mluk (melk in its singular form) is an abstract entity that gathers a number of similar jinn (genie spirits). The participants enter a trance state (jedba) in which they may perform spectacular dances. It is by means of these dances that participants negotiate their relationships with the mluk either placating them if they have been offended or strengthening an existing relationship. The mluk are evoked by seven musical patterns, seven melodic and rhythmic cells, who set up the seven suites that form the repertoire of dance and music of the gnawa ritual. During these seven suites, are burned seven different types of incense and the dancers are covered by veils of seven different colours.

Related Topics:
Jinn - Trance

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Each one of the seven mluk is accompanied by many "characters" identifiables by the music and by the footsteps of the dance. Each mluk is accompanied by its specific colour, incence, rythm and dance. These entities, treated like "presences" (called hadra; in Arabic حضرة) that the consciousness meets in the ecstatic space and time, are related with mental complexes, human characters and behaviors. The aim of the ritual is to reintegrate and to balance the main powers of the human body, made by the same energy that supports the perceptible phenomenons and the divine creative activity.

Related Topics:
Arabic - Human body

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Later, the guembri opens the treq (path; in Arabic طريق), the strictly encoded sequence of the ritual repertoire of music, dances, colors and incenses, that guide in the ecstatic trip across the realms of the seven mluk, until the renaissance in the common world, at the first lights of dawn.

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Almost all Moroccan brotherhoods (Issawas, Hmatchas, etc...) relate their spiritual authority to a saint. The ceremonies begin by reciting that saint's written works or spiritual prescriptions (hizb حزب) in Arabic. In this way, they assert their role as the spiritual descendants of the founder, giving themselves the authority to perform the ritual. Gnawa, whose ancestors were neither literate nor speakers of Arabic, begin the lila by bringing back, through song and dance their origins, the experiences of their slave ancestors, and ultimately redemption.

Related Topics:
Moroccan - Saint - Arabic

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