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In Morocco, Gnawa music is attracting a new audience in America. Lovers of the blues music, a genre forged in the fires of slavery. In Gnawa, they see and feel similarities, in rhythms and soul. CBC’s 60 Minutes tries to understand these rhymes that many African Americans find familiar.
«You can trace the blues—you can trace the blues to the Black cultures from Senegal, Gambia, Mali, who then traveled North into Morocco, the Black races. When you come here and hear the Gnawa you feel the same thing that we feel with the old-time Blues», American actor and Gnawa fan Robert Wisdom tells Bill Whitaker, the host of CBS News program 60 Minutes.
The Gnawa's three-stringed guembri and trance-inducing beats speak volumes of centuries of African agony. The history of the genre is centuries old, played in secret ceremonies by enslaved Black Africans brought to Morocco. The music is now reminiscent of the Mississippi Delta's smoky juke joints.
«In blues, or funk there is a call and response. So automatically the first time I heard Gnawas, I said, 'Wow this sounds like music from back home'. And the way that they start turning their heads, it's just like the dances that was done back in the 30s and 40s when you see Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and everybody was dancing, how our parents and grandparents were dan—it's the same thing», Sulaiman Hakim, American musical globetrotter said.
«There's always been a way to pass a message—a message. And to be able to express itself of all the pain and agony and the glory that has happened within the continental United States and the Gnawas are the same way», he told 60 Minutes.
But Gnawa isn’t just nostalgia. Gnawa music is attracting a new generation. Young Moroccan artists are ripping up the rulebook, blending electronica with ancient chants, proving tradition can be a springboard, not a shackle.
60 Minutes exposes how Gnawa is telling a story of resilience, of roots rediscovered, and of Morocco's vibrant melody echoing on the global stage. Now, and through the Gnawa festival organized every summer, scores of Gnawa lovers are invited to have a taste of the Moroccan music and dive into its centuries-old rhythms.
«Gnawa may be ancient, but it comes straight from the heart. They are very spiritual. Music is not just written for the ear. In Gnawa music, we start with the spirits», said Maalam Mokhtar Gania.
