Gnawa: Home Songs

«Gnawa Home Songs» is a tribute toa secret geography, a visceral memory,and sounds, which have been whispereddown for some -three or four- generations.Amongst the gnawa, daily intimatesounds unveil the depth of awhole cosmogony whose manifest aspectleads to possession trance.The gnawa (the name comes from theold word for Guinea) are the descendantsof the black African slaves whowere brought into the Maghreb fromthe 17th century onwards. There, theyhave pursued the connections withdjinn (the genie spirits) while proclaimingAllahs greatness. They are passerson.Religion -or rather spirituality- andmusic are neither a duty nor an end inthemselves: their practice aims at ceépimentinga community turned towards dermique. Chez les gnawa, lethe gods, with respect and considerationfor individuals. The gnawa have madetheir way far from their land of origin.Musicians and night doctors, they summonup the ancestral spirits of Africa,the popular saints of Islam and a cohortof colourful legendary characters, toheal and preserve the worlds balance.