2023-07-03 08:41:17
They are called Asma, Hind or Yousra. Young Moroccan women are now evolving in the closed circle of Gnaoua music, traditionally reserved for men, giving this centuries-old art, listed as an intangible heritage by UNESCO, a new and inclusive impetus.
“Tagnaouite (the tradition of Gnaoua music) has acquired worldwide fame with its registration at UNESCO (in 2019). Why shouldn’t women be part of this dynamic?” Asma Hamzaoui, met in Essaouira (south-west) during the recent gnaoua and world music festival.
This 26-year-old Casablancan is one of the first women to have invested in this environment thanks to her father, a Gnaoua “maâlem” (master) who initiated her from a young age.
“I accompanied him in his evenings from the age of seven. I gradually learned to play the + guembri +”, a three-string lute made of camel skin, says the young woman who created her own group in 2012, Bnat Timbouktou (“The girls of Timbuktu” in Moroccan dialect).
“My father made sure that I learned as much as possible before I took my own flight,” she recalls.
In Essaouira, the exclusively female formation – Asma Hamzaoui on vocals and guembri and four players of “qraqebs”, the famous steel castanets typical of the gnaoua genre – ignited the public, alongside the Amazons of Africa, a group Malian feminine.
“It’s exceptional to see women playing Gnaoua music, which shouldn’t remain in the bosom of men. They breathe new life into this music”, exclaims Hamza Tahir in the audience.
“Feeding the Spirit”
In the footsteps of Bnat Timbouktou, Hind Ennaira, a rising star of Tagnaouite, decided to try the adventure from his hometown of Essaouira.
This fortified citadel on the edge of the Atlantic is a breeding ground for this mystical musical tradition, where religious invocations mingle with those of the ancestors and the jinns, the magical spirits.
Over time, this music, initially carried by descendants of slaves and whose roots go back at least to the 16th century, moved out of the private sphere of “lilates”, vigils accompanied by therapeutic rituals, towards public manifestations less codified, such as concerts and festivals.
“The city of Essaouira is the source of the tagnaouite. It is a very beautiful heritage that nourishes the spirit. It is important that young people value it”, confides Hind Ennaira who learned to play the guembri alongside friends.
The young woman, from the same generation as Asma Hamzaoui, chose to lead a traditional Gnaoua ensemble with an electric spark by integrating a guitarist and a drummer with the qraqebs players.
“At first there were some differences, because they weren’t used to working with a woman, but after a few hard exercises, they adapted to me and we became complementary,” says the artist.
“Power Trio”
Difficulties, Yousra Mansour, the headliner of the group Bab L’bluz, which merges gnaoua, rock and blues, has also experienced them in the musical environment.
“There were two constraints for me: first the fact that this environment is usually reserved for men, but also the fact of interpreting traditional music. It is not very accepted or even tolerated by the + rigorous +”, testifies the musician present in Essaouira.
Barriers that did not prevent her from founding with the French Brice Bottin Bab L’bluz (“The Gate of the Blues”) with the aim of promoting Gnaoua music and its traditional instruments.
“We replaced the bass with the guembri and the guitar with the + awisha + (a small guembri) and we created a kind of + power trio + à la Jimi Hendrix with revisited traditional instruments”, details Yousra Mansour.
The 32-year-old vocalist fervently defends women’s freedoms. “Because as a woman I haven’t had a very easy life.”
“There was a lack of women in this environment. When I see Asma Hamzaoui or Hind Ennaira, they are magnificent, it is not easy to evolve in an exclusively male universe but we see the change looming”, welcomes-t- She.
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