Post by anansi on Apr 2, 2010 6:21:06 GMT -5
Caught this video on youtube while checking out King Scorpion's post.
As an event organizer myself the logistics alone of setting up an event waay out into the Saharan desert must be mind boggling.. water,food,porta potties man it must be a challenging experience.
Another thing while some may lam-blast AA's youth culture and their music it is humbling to see how far this music has traveled form the Bronx to the middle of the desert..Tuarages in the desert fusing their music with Hip/Hop..even a little reggae can be detected Mali and the manuscript restoration seems to be trying to make a come back watch-out for this kid named Abdulhalla he is simply amazing. Mali is most definitely on my list of place to visit..including the event.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e_JrozuOyI pt1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-gJVO1wn7w pt2
Jeri
Lets not just stop with hip hop, The Blues and Jazz(My Fav.) ar very influential.
Jazz is amazing, Have you heard Duke Ellington man?? Im sure Gruman is more aware of this genra(LOL)
Here is some influence of Jazz
mideast.blogs.time.com/2008/03/17/jazz_therapy/
Last night a friend took me to see Dhafer Youssef, an Arab jazz musician, for a concert in downtown Beirut. My hopes weren't high: I not a big jazz fan, and since Lebanon is a small country on the brink of war, I figured that the only people wiling to tour here would be second-tier derivative acts who couldn't make it in Europe. But what I heard on stage was something so singular and so universal, I left feeling that I had just experienced a pure expression of modernity.
Youssef's music is an elegant rebuttal to clash of civilization theorists. He secretly began listening to jazz on the radio while at Koranic school, and now his singing and oud playing combine Spanish, Arab and Berber traditions, stripped down to their essentials and backed by a laptop-wiedling Norwegian jazz ensemble. I couldn't imagine how anyone could pack so much emotion into such haunting solos, and then he held his nose and started a nasal chant that sounded like Nina Simone doing the call to prayer through a high school public address system. Totally strange and instantly beautiful.
I looked through You Tube for a quasi-legal sample of his music, and none quite do it justice. But try and get your hands on his album: Digital Prophecy.
Read more: mideast.blogs.time.com/2008/03/17/jazz_therapy/#ixzz0hcm5BL2o
Moroccan Jazz
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=15627
I will try to post difinitive history of Morrocan Jazz History but about two years ago I was listining to N.P.R(National Public Radio) and it was talking about a Morrocan Muslim and his indroduction to Jazz in America by black Musicians, and how when he came to America he felt comfotable by Black Muslims who would say Asalam-Milakah and the soothing music of Jazz and how he learned it and took it back to Morocco.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeri
The Gnawa Music of Morocco
Some of the info seems a little "Shaky" but Its still a good read.
Westerners who have visited Morocco have likely encountered Gnawa musicians. In the coastal Atlantic town of Essaouira, where an annual festival of Gnawa music takes place, and in Marrakesh, at its spectacular central square called Jamaa el-Fna. The colorful gowns and caps of Gnawa musicians, covered with cowry shells, coupled with the distinct sound of their instruments - metallic castanets, heavy drums and a three-stringed bass lute (guembri) Eprovide both visual and audio confirmation of the Gnawa presence.
Some of the best known genres of music to all Moroccans come from the classical Andalusian legacy, and reflect Morocco's historic relationship with Spain. Andalusian music is recognized as a national music and is repeatedly featured on national audio-visual media. By contrast, the Sephardic music and folksongs from the Jewish communities in Morocco are unfortunately vanishing because Morocco lost its Jewish population to help create the state of Israel. Another important but often neglected genre of music is that of the Gnawa, who came from West Africa to Morocco by way of migration, both voluntary and forced. Although the Gnawa are now fully integrated in Moroccan society, the Gnawa still remain a cultural and a social distinctiveness.
The term Gnawa has three important meanings. First, it refers to black people who were enslaved in West Africa. It is commonly believed that Gnawa of Morocco were originally black slaves and who over time had become free under various historical circumstances. Historians believe that the Gnawa population originated from black West Africa - from Senegal to Chad and from Mali in the north to Nigeria in the south. Many of these enslaved people are thought to come from Old Ghana (a kingdom north of Mali) in the 11th through the 13th century. These enslaved groups were called “Gnawa.EThere is also some historical evidence that a large enslaved population came from the great market of Djenne in Mali, and that Gnawi is a slight deformation of Jennawi. The term Gnawa is thus a color designation. It historically means “the black people.E
Second, it defines both a religious/spiritual order of a traditionally Black Muslim group. The Gnawa are traditionally a mystic order which marks their exclusiveness within Islam and the religious and spiritual components of Gnawa practice incorporates references to their origin and their enslavement.
Third, it denotes the style of music associated with this order. The ancestral memory (turath) of the displaced and enslaved people that were brought to Morocco is preserved mainly in their songs and dances.
Not all blacks in Morocco were slaves that originated from black West Africa. Some blacks were actually native to southern Morocco. Some sources suggest that groups of black people were indigenous of the Draa valley. They were sedentary agriculturists. With the advance of the Romans into the Moroccan interior in the 3rd century B.C.E., the Berbers, who inhabited the coastal areas of the Maghreb of North Africa, may have been forced to move towards the south and competed with the blacks inhabitants in the oases of the Draa, entering into an interdependent or clientele relationship with the Blacks, with the Berbers assuming the patron role.
Etymologically speaking, the meaning of Gnawa likely derives from the Berber word aguinaw, which is connected with skin color. It means “black manEin contrast with the white Berber. This word could be itself the origin of the name Guinea because akal n-iguinamen in Berber means the “land of the black menEjust like the Arabic term bilad as-sudan, which means, “land of the black people.EThe term was also adopted by the Portuguese and appeared mainly as “GuineaEon European maps dating from the 14th century.
Arabic sources indicate that there was a steady flow of human trafficking across the Saharan desert from the 10th to the 19th centuries. Since the Almoravid dynasty in the 11th century, enslavement, conscription and trade brought people from West Africa (mainly from the area of present-day Mali, Burkina Fasso and Senegal) to the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). These enslaved groups were usually called `abid or sudan, both Arabic words, or else haratin or gnawa, Berber words. We can thus name among the ancestors of the black Moroccans of today the Soninke, the Bambara, the Mossi, the Fulani, and the Hausa. Archival sources indicate the use of blacks in the armies of the Makhzen, the central authority of Morocco, and in many cases, entire garrisons consisted solely of black soldiers. Many dynasties relied on black soldiers to maintain their power.
The first ruling dynasty in Morocco to use a large number of black slaves in the army during the Islamic era was the Almoravids (al-Murabitun). During the Almoravids, the ruler Yusuf Ibn Tashfin “bought a body of black slaves and sent them to al-Andalus.EWith the additional troops provided through the slave trade, Almoravids defeated Alfonso VI of Castile in 1086 A.D. at the crucial battle of Zallaqa (near Badajoz). Arabic sources indicate that 4000 black soldiers participated in this famous battle. During the succeeding Almohad dynasty, the rulers had a private garrison of black soldiers, who also served as royal guards and during the rule of Muhammad an-Nasir, around 1200 A.D., their numbers reached 30,000. During this dynasty, the recruitment of enslaved blacks in the government became institutionalized, known as `Abid al-Makhzen, meaning “servants to the government.E
A third dynasty that used a large army of blacks was the Sa‘dis, who under the rule of Mawlay al-Mansur, invaded the Songhay Empire (in present day Mali) in 1591 A.D., which allowed them direct access to acquiring more black slaves for military purposes. In the late 17th century, Mawlay Isma`il gave orders to enslave all blacks including free black people to create his own army. Of course an act completely against the Islamic law, but he did it anyway.
In addition to the conscription of the blacks in the army, enslaved Black West Africans were assigned numerous occupations, including tasks in the home, farm, mines, oases, and ports. In many towns, slaves were primarily women who performed domestic labor or were concubines to the affluent class, while rural slaves were mainly male and worked in farming. Gradually, enslaved black people were freed either by manumission, by running away, or because their masters were forced to grant them freedom under different circumstances. After many generations, these freed black slaves eventually formed their own families and communities, such as those of the Gnawa mystic order.
Elements of pre-Islamic West African animism such as the belief in the spirit world are fundamental to the Gnawa order. For the Gnawa, the spirit world is inhabited by ancestral spirits who, among other spiritual creatures, can be used for either good or evil purposes. Ancestors are believed to act as intermediaries between the living and the supreme god, and the Gnawa communicate with their ancestors through prayer and sacrifice. The spirit world is also invoked through special ceremonies, constituted by drumming, clapping, the sound of the castanets, and dances, all designed to enlist the aid of ancestral saints to protect human beings from evil spirits and other predicaments, such as helping persons recover from an illness or a misfortune. These rites often involve spectacular trances through which contact with and appeal to ancestral spirits may be gained.
Even while adopting Islam, Gnawa did not totally abandon their animist traditions but rather continued to observe ritual possession. They combined Islamic tradition with pre-Islamic African traditions, whether local or sub-Saharan West African. After their conversion to Islam, while probably still in their country of origin, the Gnawa adopted Bilal as their ancestor and saint patron. Bilal was the first black person to convert to Islam and to become a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Claiming Bilal as a patrilineal figure was not only to emphasize the nobility of belonging to Bilal but also an attempt to legitimize their identity in Islamic terms.
Historically, as a racial minority, the Gnawa suffered much discrimination and injustice at the hands of the Arab-Berber majority within the regions that the Gnawa inhabit. Conscious of their difference and their blackness, they chose Bilal a black man as agnate. Bilal was a special man. Originally from Ethiopia, he was born into slavery. He converted to Islam while still in captivity and was tortured for his conversion by his master Umayya b. Khalaf. When Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, a very close friend to the Prophet Muhammad, heard about the valor of Bilal, he bought him and set him free in the name of Islam. Bilal became the personal servant/assistant of the Prophet. He was also the first muezzin—meaning “caller to prayer”—of the newly established Islamic community in Medina. This special relationship with the Prophet brought Bilal a special Baraka (a divine blessing). The Gnawa have constructed their Islamic identity by emphasizing a privileged status among Muslims - they converted to Islam even before Quraysh, the tribe to whom Muhammad belonged. Hence, it is not surprising to find the name of Bilal in many Gnawa songs. Additionally, to honor their spiritual and emotional link with Bilal and Islam, the Gnawa built a unique shrine in Essaouira dedicated to Bilal: the Zawiya Sidna Bilal, a place to celebrate their culture. Bilal is the symbol of the dialectic between Diaspora and homeland.
The Gnawa are a diasporic culture and one finds artistic and spiritual parallels between the Gnawa order and other spiritual black groups in Africa such as the bori in Nigeria and the stambouli in Tunisia, the sambani in Libya, the bilali in Algeria, and also outside Africa as in the case of the vodoun religion practiced in Caribbean countries (vodoun is a mix of Roman Catholic ritual elements and traditional rituals from Dahomey). The similarities in the artistic, spiritual and scriptural (e.g. related to Abrahamic written traditions) representations seem to reflect a shared experience of many African diasporic groups. The belief in possession and trance is crucial to Gnawa religious life. Music has served a patterned function in this belief and it is intrinsically linked to the Gnawa religious rituals and to their specific historic and cultural memories. It is their specific historic and cultural memories celebrated and invoked in songs, dances and musical chants that the Gnawa claim to provide access to the spiritual realm.
The Gnawa have influenced other Berber/Arab mystic orders or brotherhoods, as in the case of the Issawiya (16th century) and Hamdushiya (17th century). These brotherhoods added new elements to the usual sufi devotional rituals, such as trances and contacts with spirits, most likely influenced by contact with the Gnawa order. But these Zawaya and other sufi Berber or Arabic orders have been far more socially accepted within the regions where they are found than that of the Gnawa. The Gnawa, as a spiritual order within Moroccan Islamic society, was marginalized and is still marginal. Through their musical ceremonies and trances, they claim to cure insanity and free people from malign influences. They believe that God is too powerful for bi-lateral communication and direct manifestation and thus God can only be reached through spiritual manifestations in our world. Hence, the Gnawa are generally not considered a mystic order proper because they do not seek the conventional personal union with the divine but rather contact with the spirit world which acts as an intermediary through which contact with the divine may be accomplished.
The Gnawa have found legitimacy for their cultural distinctiveness within the regions and societies they inhabit even given their unusual and often marginalized religious rites, ceremonies, and musical practices. The images conveyed in their songs construct a coherent representation of displacement, dispossession, deprivation, misery and nostalgia for a land and a former life kept alive through their unique musical and ceremonial practices. The historical experience of the Gnawa sketched in this essay is very similar to those found in all forced diasporas. Through their ceremonies, their songs and gatherings, these people made restitution not of an "imagined community" but a real one to reconcile a fragmented past. The Gnawa provide a fascinating story of how they re/constructed their identity against a broken cultural continuity.
The Gnawa have, over many generations, productively negotiated their forced presence in Morocco to create acceptance and group solidarity. Unlike the conventional question in Black America, "Who are we?," the Gnawa ask, "Who have we become?ESimilar to the model of “creolizationEEthe integration of freed black slaves into the French cultural landscape of the American state of Louisiana , the Gnawa have created a model of their own creolization and integration into the Moroccan social landscape. This is one of the most crucial and striking differences between blacks in America and blacks in Morocco.
Over the past fifty years in North Africa, Gnawa music, like the blues in America, has spread and attracted practitioners from other ethnic groups, in this case Berber and Arab. Although most present-day Gnawa musicians are metisse and speak Arabic and Berber, some West African religious words and phrases do survive even though their meaning is lost. In Morocco, Gnawa music is found mainly where black people live in a relatively large number; large enough to form a distinctive community like the ones in Marrakech and Essaouira. These two cities are known historically to have had slave markets connected to the trans-Saharan slave trade.
Gnawa people have created a distinct space in Moroccan society. They play a social and spiritual role and in recent decades have become well-known public performers. Public, non-ceremonial performances outside the Gnawa mystic order is a recent development. In order to survive, the Gnawa have turned the mystical aspect of their music into a musical art. In the 1970’s, when the only popular music available was the Middle Eastern type, some Moroccan artists start to look into other Moroccan traditions. Some of the best examples are Nass al-Ghiwan who were inspired by the Gnawa mystic order to create an original Moroccan pop music. One of the members of the band was Abd er-Rahman Paco who was himself a Gnawa master musician from Essaouira. Gnawa music has engendered a popular style of pop music for mere entertainment such as Nass al-Ghiwan and Jil-Jilala. These two bands were the most listened to in Morocco in the 70’s and 80’s. In the 90’s, other groups emerged such as Nass Marrakech who blend traditional music with new songs that connect with contemporary themes and audiences. Yet, for the Gnawa, their music is primarily spiritual and used for healing purposes.
However, curiously, Gnawa music, similar to jazz in America, is not recognized as a national music. The national Moroccan music is the Andalusian music, which developed, in "Muslim" and came to with the expulsion of the Moors in 1502 A.D.. Gnawa music has inspired the development of popular Moroccan music in general and is analogically similar to the African-American spirituals, gospels, and eventually the genre known as “the blues,Ealso founded by former slaves. Gnawa music provides a perspective through which we may view the history of blacks in . It is a medium to discover and recover the African roots that still live on in Morocco.
Recently, Western musicians interested in African traditional music, have “discoveredEthe music of the Gnawa. As a result, many collaborations have ensued with famous jazz artists such as Randy Weston. The Gnawa are modernizing their style to make it more secular and with more commercial appeal. With these recent developments and their appeal to tourists, the Moroccan government in 1997established The Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira.
www.afropop.org/img/world_music/african_music/webreadypixFes-musician2.gif
Jeri
Here is More African Influece in "Music"
BILAL, THE FIRST MUEZZIN
A MUSLIM STORY
Key Ideas: Islam, the call to prayer, courage
Bilal stood on top of the Ka’aba in Mecca. It had been a difficult and dangerous thing to do, but he had a far more important task to complete. He filled his lungs with as much air as he could, then used his deep and powerful voice to call faithful Muslims to prayer.
Allah is the greatest.
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger.
Come to prayer.
Come to salvation.
There is no God but Allah.
Even Bilal could not believe how his life had changed to bring him to this point.
Bilal was born in Arabia, but he was a slave. His parents had been black Africans who had also lived as slaves, so their son had to be a slave too. When he was old enough, he was taken to the market place and sold to a new master.
Umaya owned Bilal. He was a merchant, who made a good living from selling idols in Mecca. He had a number of slaves, and treated them badly, for slaves were cheap, and Umaya had plenty of money. When the merchant heard Muhammad teaching about one god, Allah, he was angry. He might lose money. But when he heard Muhammad say that all people were equal, like the teeth in a comb, he was furious. No slave was equal to him.
The merchant decided to test Muhammad’s teachings. He ordered Bilal to strike one of the Prophet’s companions, firmly believing that a slave would not disobey his master. But Bilal had listened to Muhammad too, and he thought the Prophet was right. He dropped the whip Umaya had given him, and refused to do as he was told.
Immediately the merchant had Bilal thrown in prison, and his execution was ordered. During the long, dark night, Bilal thought more and more about Muhammad’s words, and became more and more convinced that they were right.
In the bright light of day, Bilal was staked to the ground and beaten. Then heavy rocks were piled on him, to crush his body. All that could be heard by those who went near was Bilal’s deep, strong voice saying “One God, One God.E
It happened that Abu Bakr, a great friend of the Prophet was passing and heard Bilal. Moved by his voice, and his cry of “One God, One God,EAbu Bakr haggled with Umaya until he was able to buy Bilal and set him free.
As a free man, Bilal became a close and dear friend to both Abu Bakr and Muhammad. He helped to build the first mosque in Medina. When the time came that the Muslim’s were searching for a way to call the faithful to prayer, Bilal came into his own. The believers decided they did not want a flag, or a bell, or a rattle, or a drum, or a trumpet, but a beautiful human voice.
Abu Bakr became excited. “Then there is only one voice we could use for our first call to prayer,Ehe said, and explained how he had found Bilal and set him free. And so it was that Bilal became the first muezzin, the first to call people to prayer in Medina. And when the Muslims returned to Mecca, he was the first to call from the top of the Ka’aba. Today the call to prayer is still as it was in Bilal’s time, just a beautiful human voice calling people to worship.
Without the Black Muslim Muzzin
This would not be possible:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsjsLXGAnjU&feature=PlayList&p=8A250A52B996F07A&index=0&playnext=1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aMcuMUh1c&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAvlimEYEpQ&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLFYMkQPakE&feature=related
Here you can hear the Muzzin in the Background in this one in Mali.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyfeJRiYPbU
Jeri
Here is some more influences..
Gospel Choir
www.youtube.com/watch?v=etGrFu6dyAE
UTSA Gospel Chior-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KrCG-wWGKA&feature=related
Brooklyn T. Chior-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y284YvkYrZo
This song is very differnt from the original(Black) version though, they cut off some parts...I remeber this song growing up man!!
Soweto Gospel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd6sy5DKpxk
Ethiopian Prayers:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhOJOdBE8h0
Im sure the Abbysinians had influence on Muslim Prayers, Bilao plus the fact that Muhammed went to Ethiopia. .
As an event organizer myself the logistics alone of setting up an event waay out into the Saharan desert must be mind boggling.. water,food,porta potties man it must be a challenging experience.
Another thing while some may lam-blast AA's youth culture and their music it is humbling to see how far this music has traveled form the Bronx to the middle of the desert..Tuarages in the desert fusing their music with Hip/Hop..even a little reggae can be detected Mali and the manuscript restoration seems to be trying to make a come back watch-out for this kid named Abdulhalla he is simply amazing. Mali is most definitely on my list of place to visit..including the event.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e_JrozuOyI pt1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-gJVO1wn7w pt2
Jeri
Lets not just stop with hip hop, The Blues and Jazz(My Fav.) ar very influential.
Jazz is amazing, Have you heard Duke Ellington man?? Im sure Gruman is more aware of this genra(LOL)
Here is some influence of Jazz
mideast.blogs.time.com/2008/03/17/jazz_therapy/
Last night a friend took me to see Dhafer Youssef, an Arab jazz musician, for a concert in downtown Beirut. My hopes weren't high: I not a big jazz fan, and since Lebanon is a small country on the brink of war, I figured that the only people wiling to tour here would be second-tier derivative acts who couldn't make it in Europe. But what I heard on stage was something so singular and so universal, I left feeling that I had just experienced a pure expression of modernity.
Youssef's music is an elegant rebuttal to clash of civilization theorists. He secretly began listening to jazz on the radio while at Koranic school, and now his singing and oud playing combine Spanish, Arab and Berber traditions, stripped down to their essentials and backed by a laptop-wiedling Norwegian jazz ensemble. I couldn't imagine how anyone could pack so much emotion into such haunting solos, and then he held his nose and started a nasal chant that sounded like Nina Simone doing the call to prayer through a high school public address system. Totally strange and instantly beautiful.
I looked through You Tube for a quasi-legal sample of his music, and none quite do it justice. But try and get your hands on his album: Digital Prophecy.
Read more: mideast.blogs.time.com/2008/03/17/jazz_therapy/#ixzz0hcm5BL2o
Moroccan Jazz
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=15627
I will try to post difinitive history of Morrocan Jazz History but about two years ago I was listining to N.P.R(National Public Radio) and it was talking about a Morrocan Muslim and his indroduction to Jazz in America by black Musicians, and how when he came to America he felt comfotable by Black Muslims who would say Asalam-Milakah and the soothing music of Jazz and how he learned it and took it back to Morocco.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeri
The Gnawa Music of Morocco
Some of the info seems a little "Shaky" but Its still a good read.
Westerners who have visited Morocco have likely encountered Gnawa musicians. In the coastal Atlantic town of Essaouira, where an annual festival of Gnawa music takes place, and in Marrakesh, at its spectacular central square called Jamaa el-Fna. The colorful gowns and caps of Gnawa musicians, covered with cowry shells, coupled with the distinct sound of their instruments - metallic castanets, heavy drums and a three-stringed bass lute (guembri) Eprovide both visual and audio confirmation of the Gnawa presence.
Some of the best known genres of music to all Moroccans come from the classical Andalusian legacy, and reflect Morocco's historic relationship with Spain. Andalusian music is recognized as a national music and is repeatedly featured on national audio-visual media. By contrast, the Sephardic music and folksongs from the Jewish communities in Morocco are unfortunately vanishing because Morocco lost its Jewish population to help create the state of Israel. Another important but often neglected genre of music is that of the Gnawa, who came from West Africa to Morocco by way of migration, both voluntary and forced. Although the Gnawa are now fully integrated in Moroccan society, the Gnawa still remain a cultural and a social distinctiveness.
The term Gnawa has three important meanings. First, it refers to black people who were enslaved in West Africa. It is commonly believed that Gnawa of Morocco were originally black slaves and who over time had become free under various historical circumstances. Historians believe that the Gnawa population originated from black West Africa - from Senegal to Chad and from Mali in the north to Nigeria in the south. Many of these enslaved people are thought to come from Old Ghana (a kingdom north of Mali) in the 11th through the 13th century. These enslaved groups were called “Gnawa.EThere is also some historical evidence that a large enslaved population came from the great market of Djenne in Mali, and that Gnawi is a slight deformation of Jennawi. The term Gnawa is thus a color designation. It historically means “the black people.E
Second, it defines both a religious/spiritual order of a traditionally Black Muslim group. The Gnawa are traditionally a mystic order which marks their exclusiveness within Islam and the religious and spiritual components of Gnawa practice incorporates references to their origin and their enslavement.
Third, it denotes the style of music associated with this order. The ancestral memory (turath) of the displaced and enslaved people that were brought to Morocco is preserved mainly in their songs and dances.
Not all blacks in Morocco were slaves that originated from black West Africa. Some blacks were actually native to southern Morocco. Some sources suggest that groups of black people were indigenous of the Draa valley. They were sedentary agriculturists. With the advance of the Romans into the Moroccan interior in the 3rd century B.C.E., the Berbers, who inhabited the coastal areas of the Maghreb of North Africa, may have been forced to move towards the south and competed with the blacks inhabitants in the oases of the Draa, entering into an interdependent or clientele relationship with the Blacks, with the Berbers assuming the patron role.
Etymologically speaking, the meaning of Gnawa likely derives from the Berber word aguinaw, which is connected with skin color. It means “black manEin contrast with the white Berber. This word could be itself the origin of the name Guinea because akal n-iguinamen in Berber means the “land of the black menEjust like the Arabic term bilad as-sudan, which means, “land of the black people.EThe term was also adopted by the Portuguese and appeared mainly as “GuineaEon European maps dating from the 14th century.
Arabic sources indicate that there was a steady flow of human trafficking across the Saharan desert from the 10th to the 19th centuries. Since the Almoravid dynasty in the 11th century, enslavement, conscription and trade brought people from West Africa (mainly from the area of present-day Mali, Burkina Fasso and Senegal) to the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). These enslaved groups were usually called `abid or sudan, both Arabic words, or else haratin or gnawa, Berber words. We can thus name among the ancestors of the black Moroccans of today the Soninke, the Bambara, the Mossi, the Fulani, and the Hausa. Archival sources indicate the use of blacks in the armies of the Makhzen, the central authority of Morocco, and in many cases, entire garrisons consisted solely of black soldiers. Many dynasties relied on black soldiers to maintain their power.
The first ruling dynasty in Morocco to use a large number of black slaves in the army during the Islamic era was the Almoravids (al-Murabitun). During the Almoravids, the ruler Yusuf Ibn Tashfin “bought a body of black slaves and sent them to al-Andalus.EWith the additional troops provided through the slave trade, Almoravids defeated Alfonso VI of Castile in 1086 A.D. at the crucial battle of Zallaqa (near Badajoz). Arabic sources indicate that 4000 black soldiers participated in this famous battle. During the succeeding Almohad dynasty, the rulers had a private garrison of black soldiers, who also served as royal guards and during the rule of Muhammad an-Nasir, around 1200 A.D., their numbers reached 30,000. During this dynasty, the recruitment of enslaved blacks in the government became institutionalized, known as `Abid al-Makhzen, meaning “servants to the government.E
A third dynasty that used a large army of blacks was the Sa‘dis, who under the rule of Mawlay al-Mansur, invaded the Songhay Empire (in present day Mali) in 1591 A.D., which allowed them direct access to acquiring more black slaves for military purposes. In the late 17th century, Mawlay Isma`il gave orders to enslave all blacks including free black people to create his own army. Of course an act completely against the Islamic law, but he did it anyway.
In addition to the conscription of the blacks in the army, enslaved Black West Africans were assigned numerous occupations, including tasks in the home, farm, mines, oases, and ports. In many towns, slaves were primarily women who performed domestic labor or were concubines to the affluent class, while rural slaves were mainly male and worked in farming. Gradually, enslaved black people were freed either by manumission, by running away, or because their masters were forced to grant them freedom under different circumstances. After many generations, these freed black slaves eventually formed their own families and communities, such as those of the Gnawa mystic order.
Elements of pre-Islamic West African animism such as the belief in the spirit world are fundamental to the Gnawa order. For the Gnawa, the spirit world is inhabited by ancestral spirits who, among other spiritual creatures, can be used for either good or evil purposes. Ancestors are believed to act as intermediaries between the living and the supreme god, and the Gnawa communicate with their ancestors through prayer and sacrifice. The spirit world is also invoked through special ceremonies, constituted by drumming, clapping, the sound of the castanets, and dances, all designed to enlist the aid of ancestral saints to protect human beings from evil spirits and other predicaments, such as helping persons recover from an illness or a misfortune. These rites often involve spectacular trances through which contact with and appeal to ancestral spirits may be gained.
Even while adopting Islam, Gnawa did not totally abandon their animist traditions but rather continued to observe ritual possession. They combined Islamic tradition with pre-Islamic African traditions, whether local or sub-Saharan West African. After their conversion to Islam, while probably still in their country of origin, the Gnawa adopted Bilal as their ancestor and saint patron. Bilal was the first black person to convert to Islam and to become a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Claiming Bilal as a patrilineal figure was not only to emphasize the nobility of belonging to Bilal but also an attempt to legitimize their identity in Islamic terms.
Historically, as a racial minority, the Gnawa suffered much discrimination and injustice at the hands of the Arab-Berber majority within the regions that the Gnawa inhabit. Conscious of their difference and their blackness, they chose Bilal a black man as agnate. Bilal was a special man. Originally from Ethiopia, he was born into slavery. He converted to Islam while still in captivity and was tortured for his conversion by his master Umayya b. Khalaf. When Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, a very close friend to the Prophet Muhammad, heard about the valor of Bilal, he bought him and set him free in the name of Islam. Bilal became the personal servant/assistant of the Prophet. He was also the first muezzin—meaning “caller to prayer”—of the newly established Islamic community in Medina. This special relationship with the Prophet brought Bilal a special Baraka (a divine blessing). The Gnawa have constructed their Islamic identity by emphasizing a privileged status among Muslims - they converted to Islam even before Quraysh, the tribe to whom Muhammad belonged. Hence, it is not surprising to find the name of Bilal in many Gnawa songs. Additionally, to honor their spiritual and emotional link with Bilal and Islam, the Gnawa built a unique shrine in Essaouira dedicated to Bilal: the Zawiya Sidna Bilal, a place to celebrate their culture. Bilal is the symbol of the dialectic between Diaspora and homeland.
The Gnawa are a diasporic culture and one finds artistic and spiritual parallels between the Gnawa order and other spiritual black groups in Africa such as the bori in Nigeria and the stambouli in Tunisia, the sambani in Libya, the bilali in Algeria, and also outside Africa as in the case of the vodoun religion practiced in Caribbean countries (vodoun is a mix of Roman Catholic ritual elements and traditional rituals from Dahomey). The similarities in the artistic, spiritual and scriptural (e.g. related to Abrahamic written traditions) representations seem to reflect a shared experience of many African diasporic groups. The belief in possession and trance is crucial to Gnawa religious life. Music has served a patterned function in this belief and it is intrinsically linked to the Gnawa religious rituals and to their specific historic and cultural memories. It is their specific historic and cultural memories celebrated and invoked in songs, dances and musical chants that the Gnawa claim to provide access to the spiritual realm.
The Gnawa have influenced other Berber/Arab mystic orders or brotherhoods, as in the case of the Issawiya (16th century) and Hamdushiya (17th century). These brotherhoods added new elements to the usual sufi devotional rituals, such as trances and contacts with spirits, most likely influenced by contact with the Gnawa order. But these Zawaya and other sufi Berber or Arabic orders have been far more socially accepted within the regions where they are found than that of the Gnawa. The Gnawa, as a spiritual order within Moroccan Islamic society, was marginalized and is still marginal. Through their musical ceremonies and trances, they claim to cure insanity and free people from malign influences. They believe that God is too powerful for bi-lateral communication and direct manifestation and thus God can only be reached through spiritual manifestations in our world. Hence, the Gnawa are generally not considered a mystic order proper because they do not seek the conventional personal union with the divine but rather contact with the spirit world which acts as an intermediary through which contact with the divine may be accomplished.
The Gnawa have found legitimacy for their cultural distinctiveness within the regions and societies they inhabit even given their unusual and often marginalized religious rites, ceremonies, and musical practices. The images conveyed in their songs construct a coherent representation of displacement, dispossession, deprivation, misery and nostalgia for a land and a former life kept alive through their unique musical and ceremonial practices. The historical experience of the Gnawa sketched in this essay is very similar to those found in all forced diasporas. Through their ceremonies, their songs and gatherings, these people made restitution not of an "imagined community" but a real one to reconcile a fragmented past. The Gnawa provide a fascinating story of how they re/constructed their identity against a broken cultural continuity.
The Gnawa have, over many generations, productively negotiated their forced presence in Morocco to create acceptance and group solidarity. Unlike the conventional question in Black America, "Who are we?," the Gnawa ask, "Who have we become?ESimilar to the model of “creolizationEEthe integration of freed black slaves into the French cultural landscape of the American state of Louisiana , the Gnawa have created a model of their own creolization and integration into the Moroccan social landscape. This is one of the most crucial and striking differences between blacks in America and blacks in Morocco.
Over the past fifty years in North Africa, Gnawa music, like the blues in America, has spread and attracted practitioners from other ethnic groups, in this case Berber and Arab. Although most present-day Gnawa musicians are metisse and speak Arabic and Berber, some West African religious words and phrases do survive even though their meaning is lost. In Morocco, Gnawa music is found mainly where black people live in a relatively large number; large enough to form a distinctive community like the ones in Marrakech and Essaouira. These two cities are known historically to have had slave markets connected to the trans-Saharan slave trade.
Gnawa people have created a distinct space in Moroccan society. They play a social and spiritual role and in recent decades have become well-known public performers. Public, non-ceremonial performances outside the Gnawa mystic order is a recent development. In order to survive, the Gnawa have turned the mystical aspect of their music into a musical art. In the 1970’s, when the only popular music available was the Middle Eastern type, some Moroccan artists start to look into other Moroccan traditions. Some of the best examples are Nass al-Ghiwan who were inspired by the Gnawa mystic order to create an original Moroccan pop music. One of the members of the band was Abd er-Rahman Paco who was himself a Gnawa master musician from Essaouira. Gnawa music has engendered a popular style of pop music for mere entertainment such as Nass al-Ghiwan and Jil-Jilala. These two bands were the most listened to in Morocco in the 70’s and 80’s. In the 90’s, other groups emerged such as Nass Marrakech who blend traditional music with new songs that connect with contemporary themes and audiences. Yet, for the Gnawa, their music is primarily spiritual and used for healing purposes.
However, curiously, Gnawa music, similar to jazz in America, is not recognized as a national music. The national Moroccan music is the Andalusian music, which developed, in "Muslim" and came to with the expulsion of the Moors in 1502 A.D.. Gnawa music has inspired the development of popular Moroccan music in general and is analogically similar to the African-American spirituals, gospels, and eventually the genre known as “the blues,Ealso founded by former slaves. Gnawa music provides a perspective through which we may view the history of blacks in . It is a medium to discover and recover the African roots that still live on in Morocco.
Recently, Western musicians interested in African traditional music, have “discoveredEthe music of the Gnawa. As a result, many collaborations have ensued with famous jazz artists such as Randy Weston. The Gnawa are modernizing their style to make it more secular and with more commercial appeal. With these recent developments and their appeal to tourists, the Moroccan government in 1997established The Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira.
www.afropop.org/img/world_music/african_music/webreadypixFes-musician2.gif
Jeri
Here is More African Influece in "Music"
BILAL, THE FIRST MUEZZIN
A MUSLIM STORY
Key Ideas: Islam, the call to prayer, courage
Bilal stood on top of the Ka’aba in Mecca. It had been a difficult and dangerous thing to do, but he had a far more important task to complete. He filled his lungs with as much air as he could, then used his deep and powerful voice to call faithful Muslims to prayer.
Allah is the greatest.
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger.
Come to prayer.
Come to salvation.
There is no God but Allah.
Even Bilal could not believe how his life had changed to bring him to this point.
Bilal was born in Arabia, but he was a slave. His parents had been black Africans who had also lived as slaves, so their son had to be a slave too. When he was old enough, he was taken to the market place and sold to a new master.
Umaya owned Bilal. He was a merchant, who made a good living from selling idols in Mecca. He had a number of slaves, and treated them badly, for slaves were cheap, and Umaya had plenty of money. When the merchant heard Muhammad teaching about one god, Allah, he was angry. He might lose money. But when he heard Muhammad say that all people were equal, like the teeth in a comb, he was furious. No slave was equal to him.
The merchant decided to test Muhammad’s teachings. He ordered Bilal to strike one of the Prophet’s companions, firmly believing that a slave would not disobey his master. But Bilal had listened to Muhammad too, and he thought the Prophet was right. He dropped the whip Umaya had given him, and refused to do as he was told.
Immediately the merchant had Bilal thrown in prison, and his execution was ordered. During the long, dark night, Bilal thought more and more about Muhammad’s words, and became more and more convinced that they were right.
In the bright light of day, Bilal was staked to the ground and beaten. Then heavy rocks were piled on him, to crush his body. All that could be heard by those who went near was Bilal’s deep, strong voice saying “One God, One God.E
It happened that Abu Bakr, a great friend of the Prophet was passing and heard Bilal. Moved by his voice, and his cry of “One God, One God,EAbu Bakr haggled with Umaya until he was able to buy Bilal and set him free.
As a free man, Bilal became a close and dear friend to both Abu Bakr and Muhammad. He helped to build the first mosque in Medina. When the time came that the Muslim’s were searching for a way to call the faithful to prayer, Bilal came into his own. The believers decided they did not want a flag, or a bell, or a rattle, or a drum, or a trumpet, but a beautiful human voice.
Abu Bakr became excited. “Then there is only one voice we could use for our first call to prayer,Ehe said, and explained how he had found Bilal and set him free. And so it was that Bilal became the first muezzin, the first to call people to prayer in Medina. And when the Muslims returned to Mecca, he was the first to call from the top of the Ka’aba. Today the call to prayer is still as it was in Bilal’s time, just a beautiful human voice calling people to worship.
Without the Black Muslim Muzzin
This would not be possible:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsjsLXGAnjU&feature=PlayList&p=8A250A52B996F07A&index=0&playnext=1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aMcuMUh1c&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAvlimEYEpQ&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLFYMkQPakE&feature=related
Here you can hear the Muzzin in the Background in this one in Mali.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyfeJRiYPbU
Jeri
Here is some more influences..
Gospel Choir
www.youtube.com/watch?v=etGrFu6dyAE
UTSA Gospel Chior-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KrCG-wWGKA&feature=related
Brooklyn T. Chior-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y284YvkYrZo
This song is very differnt from the original(Black) version though, they cut off some parts...I remeber this song growing up man!!
Soweto Gospel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd6sy5DKpxk
Ethiopian Prayers:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhOJOdBE8h0
Im sure the Abbysinians had influence on Muslim Prayers, Bilao plus the fact that Muhammed went to Ethiopia. .