Festival Gnawa: from 23 to 26 june

i'm a moroccan aged 25 i work as a guide touristic in the desert of morocco (Zagora),every year we have the world music festival of Gnaoua,After 600 Years living in Morocco, and close to the Year 2000, it is becoming a kind of hart to keep the GNAWA culture together.
GNAWA is already a melting between Sufism of Moroccan stamp and the spiritual Power of African celebration music.
With all the modem medias and networks, the whole world is coming to us now. Within more and more information and Pictures and videos, but most of all, cultural music from Africa! As more we catch conformities between the traditional way of black African culture and our own rhythms, words and habits. As more we hardly want to go across the desert of Sahara again, after 600 Years. But this time from North to South!
We need to meet our ancestors in their home. And we must tell the Africans, that not all who left home have forgotten what it means to be an African! But most of all we want to learn. Learn and learn about us about our roots, about our Powers and the wholeness of spiritual description of nature in the African way.

The Gnawa form one of the several powerful religious confraternities in Morocco.

As you listen to the music be aware that the music of the Gnawa of Morocco is meant to heal, not merely to entertain, though you will, no doubt enjoy yourself. The music is both prayer and celebration of life.
All of the songs of these musicians are spiritually motivated and are about God (Allah). Basically, one phrase or a few lines are repeated over and over throughout a particular song though the song may last a long time. In fact, in Morocco during the ritual ceremony, a song may last several hours, non-stop!
The hag'houge, similarly, is like a dress, according to Gnawa Mohammed Ben Fatah, a Maalem (master) hag'houge player. He will go nowhere without it; it stays with the player at all times. Before he plays it, he will pray over it and ask Allah to forgive him if he plays so much as one wrong note. Perfection in playing is what the Maalem (master) haghouge strives for, lest the music affect the listener the wrong way! The hag'houge was created in order to extol God (Allah) and the Prophet. The first hag'houge player, according to the Gnawa, was Sidi Bilal, who was quite close to the Prophet.
The origin of the rhythm played by the Gnawa remains a mystery. When researching this information in Morocco recently, several different versions of its beginning were told to me. Some say its origin is in the Nile, some say Ethiopia, others say definitely West Africa.
The most interesting version, however, was that the rhythm of the Gnawa /Africa was once all one music and that it became distinguished only when Europeans came along and gave it a name. Wherever Africans traveled, they took the rhythm with them thereby spreading it all over the continent and elsewhere. That is why you can hear it in Brazilian, Latin, and other forms of music. Yet, once, this was all one music all over Africa, they say. No wonder it is so hard to trace!

don't forget to join this best and big festival around the world , it's a very nice spirtual soufism music which can let you imagine another world...! for more infos , conatct me email: romantic_desert_1@hotmail.com , Tele:
+212 (0)69520773 - +212 (0)71305172

Mr.Said Berkaoui