Gnawa

The Gnawa (/ɡ(ə)ˈnɑːwə/) (or Gnaoua, Ghanawa, Ghanawi, Gnawi'; Arabic: ڭناوة, romanized: Gnāwa) are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco, that had been brought as slaves from the West African Sahel.

[2] The Gnawa population is generally believed to originate from the Sahelian region of West Africa, which had long and extensive trading and political ties with Morocco.

In Moroccan popular culture, Gnawas, through their ceremonies, are considered to be experts in the magical treatment of scorpion stings and mental illness.

The method, similar to garaya in Hausa traditional music, involves call-and-response singing, hand-clapping, and cymbals called krakeb (plural of karkaba).

Many Western musicians, including Bill Laswell, Brian Jones, Randy Weston, Adam Rudolph, Klaus Doldinger, Tucker Martine, Robert Plant, Jacob Collier and Jimmy Page, have drawn on and collaborated with Gnawa musicians such as brothers Mahmoud Guinia and Mokhtar Gania of Essaouira, brothers Mustapha Baqbou & Ahmed Baqbou, Abdelkebir Merchane, Brahim Belkani, all from Marrakesh, as well as Hamid El Kasri and Abdelkader Amlil of Rabat and the late Ahmida Boussou and Saïd Oughassal of Casablanca, who have all participated at the annual festival in Essaouira.