![]() In a sense, they can go from being the victim of a spirit to what they call "working the spirits," a kind of mastering of the state of possession. That is, they are performed as if they were possessed as slaves, but they are in a transcendent state where they are not vulnerable. People burn themselves with the flames of candles, but while in a very different state. For example people slash themselves with knives. People are going into trance, and there are a lot of mortification rights. The trauma of slavery, on the other hand, is something that can be worked out in ceremonies such as possession ceremonies. So one is inhabited by spirits, but also possessed, owned, by spirits. Now as a metaphor for possession, first off, the spirits, the possessing spirits are called mluk, the owners. So for the Gnawa, slavery is something they employ in their songs as we hear in these lyrics. But the largest influx was in the 15 th and 16 th centuries, as slaves. There are herders in the Sahara, Berberized or Berber-speaking people, that have been documented since the 3 rd century. But the West African sub-Saharan population in North Africa has been in Morocco for a long time. Many, the most, came during the 15th and 16th centuries under the Saadians who went to Timbuktu and basically brought captives from the Songhai Empire to Morocco to work as soldiers. The Gnawa came from different parts of Africa. The origins of the Gnawa are not completely homogeneous. They brought us a last to the wool suq and they sold us, In the camel bags, and they sold us in the wool market. 180-81) Then talk about slavery as a historical reality for the Gnawa, and also as a metaphor in Gnawa possession ritual. I’d like you to read aloud some of the Gnawa song lyrics that speak about slavery: (pp. It seemed the obvious step for me at that time in my life. ![]() So when I went back to do my second research in 19901994, I took advantage of my interest in West African music to actually go back and look at that music, but this time in Morocco, and with the Gnawa. My early graduate work was on other kinds of expressive culture in Morocco-oratory, women's genres, leita, which is a genre of music that is often associated with resistance, women's music that is rather rebellious. ![]() I learned Arabic, I learned as much as I could about Moroccan culture and music, and then I went back to the United States. I lived there a couple of years, and the third year, I was a research assistant. Here’s their conversation.īanning Eyre: Tell us how you initially became involved with Gnawa music.ĭeborah Kapchan: I didn't get involved in Gnawa music right away. Banning Eyre interviewed her in her office in New York in 2009. In 2007, she published a book on her work with the Gnawa, Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Gnawa, Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace (Wesleyan University Press). Professor Kapchan has been doing research in Morocco since 1990. Deborah Kapchan is a professor of Performance Studies at New York University, and the principle voice for Afropop Worldwide’s Hip Deep program, Traveling Spirit Masters: The Gnawa of Morocco.
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