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Main Index Blog Intro          

Gnawa's Historical Background

Gnawa and Diasporic African Power cited

from Egypt that Bab el-Kuhel

or Qasr were other references to

Bab Agnaou: the Black Gate.

Gnawa people built and walked beneath its ancient arch.

Slavery depopulated regions from

Chad to Kongo and Niger,

while bringing thousands to

modern-day Morocco...

Gnw- or -gnaw is generally used in the Amazigh language,

it refers to a thundering cloud.

Perhaps allusions also include

thousands of Black Africans' feet,

which marched via caravan from Timbuktu and further east.

"Gnawa are the black Moroccans.

They were taken in slavery as soldiers

from the ancient Mali Empire.

A lot of their songs, they sing about villages

like they talk about the cities of Bambara;

they sing about Segu,

which is [comprised of] ancient African

cities and empires, you know?"

Randy Weston said in 2009.


Foulani communities are found from Cameroon to Sudan,
and many Gnawa songs reference them

"They migrated; they were taken up to North Africa,

and as most African people

do wherever they do,

whatever they come into contact with,

they create a spiritual music.

No matter what their religion is;

it makes no difference.

You find this is true in Brazil, in Cuba,

in Venezuela, in Puerto Rico,

in Jamaica, all over the world.

America, Mississippi, New

York, that’s always there, that firm foundation." (Art Works)

Musical Structure

Gnawa, blues, modern rock music actually

retained the polyrhythmic base, those

roots in West African lute and percussive ensembles,

from Senegambia to Benin and Nigeria.


Senegalese lute virtuoso Nuru Kane explains
the guembri's past in French

Polyrhythm Pattern Generator can recreate the

tbel and ganga drum patterns

beneath Gnawa's guembri and karkaba castanets.

This hypnotic rhythm opens the door

to al-malaka or spirit pantheon:

Lalla Fatima (white or green), Lalla Malika

(black), Lalla Mira (yellow),

Sidi Sma (dark blue), Bacha Hamou (red) and more...


Music of the Gnawa of Morocco: Evolving Spaces and Times, pg. 142

Here's a MIDI from the pentatonic pitch/

song sequence for Sidi Mimoun:

the opening suite for his spirit with 'Marhba' ("welcome"), and so on.

File version: Gnawa Sequence for Mimoun, Suites I-III, V

Make your own modern Gnawa

sequence and use jazz guitar

or electric piano with the picture here!


Maalem Mahjoub, Gnawa de Marrakech - Marhba/Sidi Mimoun (Album)

How does this relate to me? I'm just a Black

musician and diasporic historian

with 45% ethnic ancestry in Nigeria, 20% in central Africa,

and other communities in Ghana, Mali.

Maalem Mahjoub, Gnawa de Marrakech - Gilali/Bouala


The ngoni is a six-plus stringed instrument found
from Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali

to Senegambia, with several pitches from low

(Ngoni ba) to higher (Ngoni micin):

usually made from goatskin and calabash...

pentatonic like guembris.

This is one of Gnawa's main ancestors: takamba.

Another ancestor are Wodaabe's Gerewol

chants during courtship ceremonies.

They are Fula too.

Want an audio example from Folk Music of the Sahel?


Nightmusic: Song of the Gnawa  Defining and Revising the Gnawa and Their Music   Paintings of the Seven Colors of Gnawa