The role of Gnawa music culture in socio-political movements and societal mobilities: A political, economy-based sociological survey within an historical perspective

This study focuses on the Gnawa music, a product of a reborn, shared, hybrid identity and culture composed of Sub-Saharan Africans of various ethnicities and origins, who were forced to migrate from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Maghreb through the slave trade. Due to its turbulent history, the African continent has been exploited and despised casually, whereas the Gnawa culture is marginalized and rejected not only by European colonialists but also by other Moroccans themselves, who do not belong to the Gnawa identity—a quite dramatic issue for this culture—particularly in Morocco, where this culture is centered. The study advocates the viewpoint that each and every culture is subject of interest and deserves to be analyzed and approached without any bit of underestimation. With this axiom in mind, regarding music not only as a sonic but a social and cultural phenomenon as well, it is believed, that the Gnawa music and its associated culture could only be defined through a musicologic study within an interdisciplinary web of relationships linking a multitude of social science disciplines. This study was intended to reveal such an undertaking. In line with the scope and purpose of the research, first of all, Gnawa music has been examined and deciphered from a sociological perspective, using concepts and paradigms that have influenced this culture in some way and are well documented in social science literature. Besides the observations and interviews obtained during the field research in Morocco, where the culture is intensely experienced, the study was also shaped within the framework of complementary methods, including a literature review and netrography. It has been concluded, that a variety of phenomena and paradigms prevalent throughout the world, such as modernity, postmodernity, neo-modernity, and globalization, affect and change Gnawa music. Further, social inequality theories, instrumentalized by social scientists to analyze various cultures and identities are attempted to be utilized on Gnawa music as a tool to analyze, reflect and underline several social inequalities to be revealed in the context of this culture.