Merzouga Music Festival Video Gnawa Music Merzouga Concert

Gnawa Music

Gnawa music is a mixture of African, Berber, and Arabic religious songs and rhythms. It combines music and acrobatic dancing. The music is both a prayer and a celebration of life. Though much of the influences that formed this music can be traced back to sub-Saharan Africa, and specifically, the Western sahel, it is concentrated in north Africa, mainly Morocco and Algeria.

In a Gnawa song, 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, a song may last several hours non-stop.

Gnawa Roots in Sahara Desert - Khamlia Music, 4km from Merzouga

This next video is quite nice. I found it in youtube and you can have a close look at the instruments and the dance.

The Gnawa or Gnaoua refers at once to a style of Moroccan music with sub-Saharan Africa origins or influence, an ethnic group and religious order at least in part descended from former slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa or black Africans migrated in caravans with the Trans-Saharan trade, or a combination of both. The name appears to originate from the Saharan Berber dialect word aguinaw (or agenaou), meaning "black (men)," which also was deformed in European usage to "Guinea".