Morocco: UNESCO to examine Gnawa music submission

Morocco World News reported that Mustapha Nami, a Moroccan senior curator of historical monuments, submitted a file to the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in September 2018.

The submission will be discussed at the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Bogota, Colombia, from 9 to 10 December.

It was previously reported that the genre is on a decline, with only a few platforms, such as the Gnaoua World Music Festival in Essaouira, wholly promoting it.

This is the second Gnawa submission to UNESCO. In 2014, Gnaoua World Music Festival organiser Neila Tazi submitted the genre with the organisation but cited lack of government support in ensuring its success.

“The file is quite complex to build and we now wait on our Ministry of Culture and our delegation to UNESCO to help us make it,” she recently wrote on Facebook. 

Gnawa music carries ancient Afro-Islamic spiritual and religious songs, and rhythms that can be traced back to West Africa. The genre has produced some of Morocco's most prominent artists such as Hassan Hakmoun and the late Mahmoud Guinia.

If this submission is successful, Morocco will boast eight items on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, including the Cherry Festival in Sefrou and the taskiwin martial dance of the western High Atlas.