STUDENT REPORTS Listening to Changing Narratives and Musical Diversity in Moroccan Music Christopher Witulski

From November of 2010 to The research that I prepared August of 2011, I had to opportu- while in Fez questions the ways in nity to conduct my dissertation which the Gnawa perform construct- field esearr ch in Fez, . ed narratives of their own history This was my fourth visit to the while asking where ritual leaders country and my fifth to North Africa. find space for personal creativity. While there, I completed language Representations of these different study in the Moroccan dialect of narratives (briefly “We are African” Arabic and intensive ethnographic and “We are Sufi”), which are em- research with musicians from across bedded into the music, depend on the spectrum of musiqa ruhiyya, performative decisions, on musical loosely translated as spiritual style. The questions that perform- music. I focused on a population of ers must ask and answer each time professional musicians and ritual they proceed through a ceremony or leaders called the Gnawa, though I public performance reify one or an- also spent considerable time work- other of these imagined ontologies, ing closely with Sufi musicians and the recording industry and festival foregrounding, for example, Afri- other performers. In each case, I circuits, they use their artistry, cre- can instead of Arab elements of the questioned how these professional ativity, spirituality, leadership, and tradition for international audiences musicians could constantly negoti- practicality to create and support an or favoring songs that emphasize a ate the space between “popular” and idea of what a publicly manifested timeless African communal history “religious,” always adapting to the Islam looks like. over those that result from more competing economic and spiritual My project centered on the recent individual creativity. demands of their public positions. Gnawa, once a population of en- Additionally, while in Fez I These strategies highlight the how slaved sub-Saharan Africans forc- accepted an invitation to perform on the concepts of sacred and secular, ibly brought to Morocco through the violin with a ensemble, popular, even entertainment or the trans-Saharan slave trade. The a genre of music that straddles ritual, escape simple categorization. ritual activity that comprises the fo- this divide between the pious and Furthermore, each of these members cal point of Gnawa practice involves entertainment, in the Fez Festival of a spirit possession ceremony, an Sacred Music. I contributed cover- event led by a group of ritual musi- age and photography on the entire cians. After years of marginalization festival for the View From Fez, a as social, economic, and religious prominent English language news outcasts, their music gained the blog, as well as Afropop Worldwide. attention of the parade of American Currently, I am writing my disserta- and European artists who came tion, teaching courses in American to Morocco (especially ) Popular Music, and preparing a after World War II and during the study abroad course to Spain and civil rights movement in search of Morocco that will highlight the role ‘oriental’ or African inspiration (the of the arts in healing traditions in of Fez’s musiqa ruhiyya community Rolling Stones, , Bryon and the Islamic world, both is firmly a part of the incessant pro- Gysin, , Ornette historically and today. cess of defining and redefining how Coleman, etc.). Their music, often Islam is, and should be, practiced in described in terms of its bluesy Chris Witulski is a Ph.D. candidate in everyday life. Through the presenta- musicology/ethnomusicology, a UF grooves, is now featured across the Alumni Fellow, and former FLAS fel- tion of specific religious practices country in major music festivals low (Arabic, summer 2007). on stage and the dissemination of and on innumerable these performed ideologies through releases.

Center for African Studies Research Report 2011 51