Women Conquered the Gnaoua Music of Morocco

There is a great demand for Gnaoua music by tourists and visitors to the famous Jemaa El Fna Square in Marrakesh and the Essaouira Festival. These visitors are usually foreigners, Arab and Moroccans. Yet many people do not know about this music style roots.

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The origins of this unique music go back to the Subsaharan Africa, or the regions and land that lie south of the Sahara. Most of the Gnaoua trace their origins to the Western Sudan Empire, which includes Senegal, Mali, Niger and Guinea. But the origin of the word, Gnaoua is not known yet.

Some anthropologists say that the origin of the word has a verbal similarity with the Amazigh phrase “Iguenaouin”, which means the land of the Negroes. This term resulted in the birth of the adjective “Guinea”, including “Gnaoua”, despite the lack of historical data that documents and supports this thesis. Contrary to many prevalent ideas about Gnaoua musicians, not all of them are slaves who have converted to Islam. It is true that most of them are of black African origin and belong to sub-Saharan Africa, but there are in fact some groups who are Arabs or Berbers. That is, from different colors and ethnic groups, and with complex social origins. In spite of that, their music and its different styles resulted in the unification of these races origins and made them establish different schools that took great care of the Gnaoua music and preserved it from grandfathers to fathers, extending in time and space.

The Gnaoua music has a big festival in the city of Essaouira (South Morrocco), which is an international music and culture festival since 1998 that takes place annually every June.

Essaouira is a fortified castle on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It is fertile ground for this mystical musical tradition that mixes religious prayers with invocations of ancestor spirits and jinn.

Over time, this music, which was initially carried by the descendants of slaves and traces its roots back to at least the 16th century, moved from the private domain of the "Gnaoui night", which included healing rituals, towards public events such as concerts and festivals.

The surprise of the festival this year was a group of three young Morrocan women: Asma, Hend and Yousra. This women´s gnaoua group have entered the circle of Gnaoua music traditionally reserved for men, giving a new impetus to the centuries-old art that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has listed as intangible heritage.

Asmaa Hamzaoui says during the Gnaoua and World Music Festival in Essaouira, southwestern Morocco, that “Technaouet” (the Gnaoua music tradition) gained international fame by being included in UNESCO (in 2019). Why shouldn't women be part of this momentum?"

The 26-year-old from Casablanca is one of the first women to enter the field thanks to her father, the mualim "teacher" Gnaoui, who made her love it from a young age. The mualim is kind of Saint and an expert of this music.  

"I have accompanied him in his evenings since the age of seven," explains the young woman who created the "Girls of Timbuktu" group in 2012. "I gradually learned to play the 'Cambry'", which is a three-stringed lute made of camel skin.

In Essaouira, her all-women troupe - Asma Hamzaoui on vocals and cambry and four young women using the "qraqib", steel gongs popular in Gnaoua music, were the stars of the festival and engaged the audience in a magic way. It was obvious that for them, especially the Moroccan audience, it was exceptional to see women playing Gnaoua music.

Following in the footsteps of the "Girls of Timbuktu", the rising star of technavite” Hind Naira decided to experience adventure from her hometown of Essaouira.

The young woman, who is from the same generation as Asma Hamzawy, chose to lead a traditional Gnaoua band with the integration of a guitarist and a drummer. It wasn’t easy for her, because these musicians are not used to working with women.

These difficulties were also experienced by Yousra Mansour, the leader of the "Bab Al Blues" band, which combines Gnaoua, rock and blues music.

For Yousra the barriers did not prevent her from founding the "Bab Al Blues" band with the French Brice Boutin, with the aim of promoting Gnaoua music and its traditional instruments.

She said that with this fusion they created a kind of Jimi Hendrix-style with these traditional instruments.

The 32-year-old singer is a fierce advocate for women's empowerment, as she said, “She did not have an easy life." She explained that there was a shortage of women in this field. She added “when I see Asmaa Hamzawy or Hind Al-Naira, I find them wonderful. It is not easy to stand out in a male world, but we see change on the horizon."