August 2019

 

Gnaoua Festival Berlin No2

Saturday 17.08.2019 8pm | Saal, Tempelhofer Feld / Cabuwazi Big Top

Admission: Concert/Ritual: Advance sale 12 EUR, Box office 16 EUR / 12 EUR discount

Organizer: Werkstatt der Kulturen

Production

CONCERT

Asmâa HAMZAOUI & BNAT TIMBOUKTOU

17/08/2019 | 8pm | Auditorium
Advanced sale 12 EUR, Box office 16 EUR / 12 EUR discount

Although women are indispensable during Gnaoua rituals, there have not been many female Gnaoua musicians thus far. Asmâa Hamzaoui and the band Bnat Timbouktou are part of a new wave that is changing that. Hamzaoui is from a family in which Gnaoua culture is being lived and breathed.

 

Her father is a master musician and her mother is a dancer. As a child she learned to play the gimbri and joined the band of her father at an early age, before he encouraged her to form her own group.

Bnat Timbouktou was born, the band with whom she will release her first album called »Oulad Lghaba« this autumn on the Swedish label Ajabu Records. Among other songs, Bnat Timbouktou will also play the »Black Suite« - according to her, this is the ritual that comes closest to the core of Gnaoua culture. While Hamzaoui is a traditionalist in many ways, her pieces are also creative reinterpretations of past presences.
line-up

  • Asmâa Hamzaoui - gimbri, vocals
  • Aicha Hamzaoui - qraqeb, vocals
  • Soukaina Elmeliyjy - qraqeb, vocals
  • Hind Lamgammah - qraqeb, vocals

RITUAL

LILA BY MâALEM MOKHTAR GANIA & MQADDMA KHADDOUJ HADIDI

17/08/2019 | 10pm | Tempelhofer Feld / Cabuwazi big top
Advanced sale 12 EUR, Box office 16 EUR / 12 EUR discount 6/s

 

Khaddouj Hadidi who is from Essaouira is a distinguished Mqaddma a chief of rituals.  Her father was already Mâalem, a master, and her husband is from a renowned Gnoua family:  Mâalem Mokhtar Gania. Her comprehensive knowledge about the different aspects of the Gnaoua rituals from rhythms, colours to dances allows her to thoroughly prepare the »Lila« and to accompany the participants into their trances. The Mqaddma is supported by numerous musicians playing during the festival. Mâalem Mokhtar Gania role is equally important, he is responsible for the connection to the »Mlouk«.
line-up

  • Mokhtar Gania - Mâalem
  • Khaddouj Hadidi - Mqaddma
  • Simo Lagnawi - gimbri, qraqeb
  • Hicham Bilali - gimbri, qraqeb, vocal
  • Rachid Lamouri - qraqeb, vocal
  • Habib Belk - gimbri, vocal
  • Zakaria Izoubaz – qraqeb, vocal
  • Rabii Rezgoui - qraqeb, vocal



GNAOUA FESTIVAL BERLIN No2

They came from West African countries now called Mauritania, Senegal, Niger and Mali, many of them from Western Sudan. For centuries, West Africans, often still children, were kidnapped, enslaved and deported by caravan trade routes to today's Maghreb states. In the 16th century, one of the largest centres of trans-Saharan human trafficking was in Morocco, about 150 kilometres from Marrakech.

 
Today Essaouira is one of the most important cultural centres of Gnaoua. There are various assumptions about the origin of the term »Gnaoua«. It was probably derived from the Arabic »Guinea«, i.e. »black«. A derivation from the Berber akal n iguinaouen, »land of blacks«, is also possible. The »Gnaouis«, the black Moroccans, trace their cultural origins back to the Hausa from states such as today's Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, the Peul, whose principalities stretched from Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Chad to Sudan, the Wolof culture in Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania, and above all to the Bambara and Songhai, whose empires concentrated around Niger and shaped the regions linguistically and culturally from the 15th to the 17th century.


The Gnaouis blended the spiritual music of these very different West African cultures of origin with Sufi traditions and musical styles of the Jewish and Muslim Arabs and Amazigh North Africans. The outcome is a resilient, spiritual music and a curative practice, the Gnaoua culture, whose musical core is the driving rhythm of the metal »qraqeb«, the predecessor of the flamenco castanets.
Gnaoua is currently an integral part of Moroccan music culture. The music of the Black Maghreb is mixed with Jazz, Pop and Rock. With their rhythmic music, the Gnaouis not only regenerated the sound of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, they also had a great impact on the global development of jazz: From the 1960s onwards, renowned US jazz musicians such as Randy Weston, Archie Shepp and Joe Zawinul became interested in the trance music of the Gnaouis and performed together with great Mâalems (Gnaoua masters). Rock stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Carlos Santana were also inspired by Gnaoua music.

The UNESCO is considering including Gnaoua music in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in December 2019.

The GNAOUA FESTIVAL BERLIN No2 is presented by


The Partners

     

Our special thanks to Jörg Grotjohann, Cultural Attaché of the German Embassy in Rabat, for his kind assistance.


  


The WERKSTATT DER KULTUREN is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
 

Back to Schedule