Gnawa - Essaouira
Essaouira:
If the old Essaouira Mogador Portuguese is one of the most attractive cities of the Moroccan Atlantic coast, it is certainly a temperate climate all year round, to the kindness of its inhabitants, and its architectural heritage. Only the wind that blows throughout the year the city is a minor inconvenience. 
But behind its walls of ocher and red, there is an atmosphere unique. You will meet strollers, fishermen, merchants and artisans who mingle artists from around the world.
To start a bit of history to understand why Essaouira is a city like any other, a brief overview of the citadel, a short walk of the harbor and the beach, before disappearing into the medina and the mellah to get lost in another world.
History: Its history begins in the seventh century BC. The Phoenicians were calling at the island of Mogador when they went down to black Africa. The Romans later settled a manufacturing center of the purple dye it bright red which gave its name to the islands Purpuraires off Essaouira. The Portuguese established there a military detachment and a trading post. It traded products manufactured in Europe against gold, salt, sugar, ostrich feathers. this is how the city of Mogador developed until the sixteenth century.
In Morocco's independence in 1956, the city found the name of Essaouira ... it's also the beginning of its decline. In the '60s, Essaouira became the favorite refuge of the hippies. Orson Welles came to shooting several scenes of his film "Othello" and Jimmi Hendrix and his peers of the "beat generation" stayed there in the 60s. Tourists buy and restore old houses or riads of Kasba. But mass tourism has not yet come to Essaouira.
The Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah Museum Housed in the former residence of the Pasha, he is devoted to regional arts. It also weapons, musical instruments and tapestries. Admission is free. The Skalla the Kasbah This is a platform elevated some 200 feet long, decorated with guns, dating from 1595 under Philip II, Philip III in 1614 and the late eighteenth century, who monitor the bay and islands .
In his ground-floor shops were grouped some of the best craftsmen of the city marquetry. At the Purple Islands off Essaouira islands once housed a factory of purple that King Judah II had built and was used by the Romans who passed by that also. A prison was built during the reign of Sultan Moulay Hassan. Today the islands are home to a reserve hawks.
From the port of Essaouira half an hour just to cross the inlet by motorboat (do not forget to take a local permission to perform this expedition).
mogador
/ /
E ssaouira, white city on the rocky peninsula, rising from the waters like a dream of stone on which the time would not have taken ...
Cosmopolitan city, since its foundation, is unlike any other city of the Kingdom. A surprising mix of architecture, behind high walls battered by waves during high tides, which fills an ocean surfers and divers, wild creeks, a generous sun tempered by a gentle breeze, a craft known throughout Morocco, a delicious regional cuisine and a host of sin 
cerite touching:
The Port was born in the eighteenth century, when the Sultan Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah decided to build on the rocky outcrop of Cape Mogador a bunker, Naval Base, the Port of Mogador, who was also nicknamed "Port of Peace", when it served to connect the Black Africa to Europe and America.
Leaving the harbor Skala, enter the Place Moulay Hassan, welcoming vast esplanade liaising between the old town and new town
On your left, find the Kasbah, fortified district also known as "the neighborhood of the King". Built to house all those who managed and operated by the port, he was surrounded by walls, foundations anchored in the rock, some of which are still intact.
Walk along the ramparts by taking the road from the Skala of the Kasbah. This monument-style military Vauban, designed in 1765 to repel attacks by sea, consists of a platform with two niveaux.Il consists of a series of pieces, which were used for the storage of ammunition and weapons. At the foot of Skala is a street lined with shops marquetry, whose work is internationally renowned.
At the heart of the kasbah, the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions Museum and Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah, is the mirror and the collective memory of the province of Essaouira. On the ground floor, enter the world of harmony and sounds discovering musical instruments profane.Commencez ritual or liturgical music by brotherhoods: Assaoua, Hamadcha, which local groups have acquired an international reputation. Then discover the instruments that the musicians of Berber Haha, south of Essaouira, used to accompany the amerg and ahouach well as those whose Chiadma Arabic, north of Essaouira, use the music of the aita . Admire finally instruments orchestras urban Andalusian music and malhoun.Au first floor, several collections of craft production are discussed: cedar furniture and objects, silver jewelery revealing the sophistication of female attire and know-how Traditional jewelers, carpets, pottery.
Who are the Gnawa?
/ /
Historic Gnawa:
) son t les descendants d'a nciens esclaves originaires d'Afrique Noire. The Gnawa (Gnawa) his t's descendants has nciens Black African slaves. Formed a brotherhood through Morocco, the Gnawa (Gnawa) musicians are masters (maâlem), players rattlesnake, clairvoyants, psychics and adeptes.Leurs practices, both musical, initiatory and therapeutic mix of inputs African and Arab-Berber. Although Muslims, Gnawa (Gnawa) based on their specific worship jinn (spirits) and their rituals have retained many features unique to African possession cults. The ceremony's largest and most spectacular is the Gnawa Lila, whose function is essentially therapeutic.
During the celebration, the maâlem, accompanied by his troupe, called the saints and supernatural entities to take possession of the followers, who engage transe.Les then the instruments used are: the drum-lute with three strings (guembri) rattlesnakes (qraqeb) and drums (ganga). This ritual is similar to Voodoo in Haiti and Macumba of Brazil.
Music-guilds which only the secular dimension is shown to the public, the festival holds so much potential it has triggered a wave of imitators en-route to the scene certainly internationales.LEXIQUE Gnawa (Gnawa): plural gnaoui. Generic term that includes members of the brotherhood as the master musicians, players of rattlesnakes, therapists and blind followers affiliated with the Brotherhood.
Maâlem: master cérémonieMoqadma: prêtressesTallaâtes, or chouwafates arifates: showy - thérapeuthesMlouk: supernatural entities
Guembri or Hajhouj: lute three-drum cordesAouicha: small or guembriQarqabates qraqech: rattlesnakes Tbel: drum
Ftouh Errahba: early or directory mloukDerdeba Lila ceremony or rite of possessionHal jedba: transeKoyo: pre-Islamic musical repertory
