Morocco To The Rhythm Of The Gnaoua Festival

Since 1998, Essaouira, the southwestern city of Morocco, facing the Atlantic, hosts the Gnaoua Festival which welcomes artists who can represent the Gnawa music

Presented as an “African Woodstock”, the Essaouira Gnaoua and the World Music Festival is more than just music. Gathering indigenous Gnaoua musicians with renowned artists from around the world, the festival is a tool to preserve heritage and culture.

Talking about this tool better, we can start by understanding what Gnaoua music is.

· Gnaoua Music

Gnawa(Gnaoua) music is part of the history of Morocco. It is his rich repertoire of ancient African Islamic spiritual songs and rhythms. Music is a well-preserved heritage and contains combinations of poetry, rituals, with traditional music and dance. The music is performed in lilac, communal nights of celebration dedicated to prayer and healing guided by mamalem Gnawa, or master musician, and his group of musicians and dancers.

The history of Gnawa music is complex: its origin is sub-Saharan, with syncretism between Muslim culture and rituals of pagan birth. He arrived in Morocco with slaves from that region. Many of these slaves became Muslims but retained part of their culture, such as music and religion. Originally, dance and music are spiritual – the lyrics bear Ala and Mohamed. This is one of the main genres of Moroccan folklore.

It is easy to see in Gnawa a parallel with the origin of African-American cults such as Candomblé, Santeria, and the like in regions of America where a considerable part of the population is descended from African slaves. Many of the influences are found in sub-Saharan West Africa, but their traditional practice is concentrated in Morocco. Currently, Gnawa music has spread to many other countries in Africa and Europe, such as France, and is in the roots of styles celebrated as Jazz, Blues, R & B and Rock & Roll.

· Gnaoua Music Instruments:

1. the guembri is a stringed instrument
2. the tbel (or tabl) or drum, played with a curved stick
3. qraqeb, a kind of metal castanets that keep the rhythm.

· The Gnaoua World Music Festival

“The purely gnaoua concerts are characterized by the repetition of sounds and dances, which bring mainly joy and, in repetition, lead to trance. The audience vibrates with the songs, letting themselves get carried away by the sounds of these familiar sounds”

The Gnaoua International Music Festival is held annually in Essaouira, an Atlantic seaside resort town and has long been considered as one of the best anchorages of the Moroccan coast. The festival allows Essaouira, side by side, to live the traditional and the modern: stage prepared for the night shows and the whole mosque. Believers pray on the sidewalk. Carpets are laid out and, facing Mecca, they are not disturbed by all the noise and music that is heard throughout the Medina. The city, already familiar to tourists, is even more crowded these days, with people who want to live this environment of gnaoua music and other music in the world. And strolling through the Medina you can find several street artists who join this party.

When we talk about structures, we can mention that, normally, the festival has five stages: three of them for more intimate and reserved concerts, with pre-purchased tickets, plus two other big stages: one at the main Boulay Hassan Square and another at the beach. The latter two are free admission. There is a reserved part, next to the stage, for the press and guests, and behind is a sea of ​​people to attend these concerts.

The Gnaoua Festival annually attracts an audience of 500,000. There are many reasons, but we can understand that its visitors are attracted mainly by offering a rich program with the aim of emphasizing the Gnaoua heritage in all its variety and inviting the best artists of the world and jazz to perform in the unique city and magic of Essaouira.

The popular festival lasts four days, and features Gnaoua-style art and music exhibitions. It is the celebration of Gnaoua music, with African religious spiritual rhythms of various times, which we recognize today for its compositions in the roots of Jazz, Blues, R & B, Rock & even Rock & Roll. Inspired by ritual poetry, dance and traditional music from the Maghreb, the bands on stage at the festival are led by a Ma’hlem, a master of Gnaoua music.

These Musicians and international groups from Tangier, Marrakesh and Essaouira perform their Gnaoua sounds at Place Moulay Hassan and other spaces in the medina and outside their walls like Bab Doukkala, Bab Marrakech, Dar Souiri, Chez Kebin, Zaouia Gnaoua and Place Khayma and the Marche Aux Grain. The mix of cultures and voices is so great that, for you to have an idea, in 2017, to sing in Portuguese, there was the Brazilian Carlinhos Brown!

The festival is not a simple music festival. Every year musicians from all over the world are invited to rehearse with a Mahlem to delve into the spirit of Gnaoua music. The aim is to merge their different musical styles, which have common roots. In each stage performance, the audience can discover a musical mix that they have never heard before. It creates traditions from the cultural bridge that makes it possible – Gnaoua walks from the candomblé of Brazil to the rituals of Haiti. People are swept away by the rhythmic depth that experience enables. Every year musicians from all over the world are invited to rehearse with a Mahlem to delve into the spirit of Gnaoua music. The aim is to merge their different musical styles, which have common roots. In each stage performance, the audience can discover a musical mix that they have never heard before.

In a world where many people are unaware of Africa, the Gnaoua festival demonstrates the creative power of human collaboration and musical and cultural interaction and enables us to wonder more about this brilliant form of human expression.

Enjoy visiting Essaouira and the festival!

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