Intro. Gnawa : Saturnian Paradigms in North Africa
Sidi Mimun, Lalla Mimuna and the Black spirits
Disclaimer: Do not engage with this content if you feel triggered by topics that mention esotericism, mythologies, the occult and the history of slavery. Keep in mind a lot of this information has also been transmitted to me throughout my life, throughout my own personal experiences and lastly through my readings which will be provided as references below. Many of these stories/mythologies have different variations and origins.
For this upcoming series about the Gnawa traditions, I thought I would introduce it with a short analysis of Saturnian paradigms/archetypes in North African cosmologies and Esoterica.
Glossary :
Lila : gnawa ceremony happening at night
M’luks/Salihin : the spirits and saints. The M’luks are the shadow, the Saints are the Light.
Derd’ba : the liturgy
A’da : routine/tradition
Jawi : incense, incense is switched depending on the color/spirits
In esoteric understanding and cosmologies, Saturn has often been subjected to dichotomies more than other planets/archetypes. Although one understands that many things exist and operate on a spectrum, Saturn has for a long time been oscillating between bad and good, but the discourse interestingly shifts according to cultural understandings. In Western esotericism, and for many Western astrologers/spiritualists, Saturn has gained the Bad Guy title, it is the bringer of misfortune, poor health, limitations and difficulties.
In North Africa, however, Saturn has maintained an image of prosperity, notably through its archetypical manifestations and symbols. It is also essential to add that in modern western societies, Saturn is related to a masculine energy, and often synonymous of hard work within capitalistic paradigms. In contrast, in North African cosmology (and even Jewish Traditions [which is also at the origin of the Moroccan Jewish celebration of Mimuna]), Saturn is associated with prosperity, abundance, but detachment from the material world equally (transmutation) and is manifested as both female and male archetypes (Lalla Mimuma & Sidi Mimun). And in parallel to the West that associates Saturn with labour, Jewish traditions reserve Saturn’s Day (Shabbat) to absolute rest and closeness to the divine.
There are many reasons to such disparities of symbolism, and one of the reasons is closely tied to the presence of Black culture in North Africa, which is at the origin of Gnawa. It is however important to remember that many traditions in North Africa have influenced each other greatly, and considering they were transmitted orally and through practices, it is rather difficult to trace back to the “origins”. Try to not imagine the stories as a straight line but rather a mosaic with a point at the centre.
Gnawa of Morocco
The diasporic identities of Gnawa in Morocco (keep in mind there are also the Stambali in Tunisia, Sambani in Libya, Bilali in Algeria & Zar in Egypt) are tied to blackness, and according to many historians, the Gnawa are descendants of the enslaved people from Western Africa who were liberated throughout history (but this is not a reason to erase the presence of indigenous black people of Tamazgha). This already sets the tone to understand the socio-cultural provenance and nature of Gnawa as a spiritual order, they represent marginality. Throughout the years, Gnawa became a mystic order (to call it a brotherhood is to erase the presence of gnawi women) and merged traditions as Black people converted to Islam. Although they went through the conversion to Islam, because of the socio-cultural contexts, they still operated on the margins, and borrowed concepts from other Sufi orders of Morocco. The unfortunate race relations kept the Gnawa alienated, because of the spiritual influences, language used (west African dialects) and the cosmology outside of Islamic traditions.
This is the reason, that even today, Gnawa represent Black resistance, and to neglect their identities is to erase Black History in the Maghreb. The resistence of the Gnawis is felt in their music, their language, their clothings, and their overall existence as a traveling spiritual order. Indeed, because of their position within society and the absence of a zawiyya (holy place for a sufi order), Gnawa traveled around different locations, to offer blessings and ask for it in return. Even in many small cities in Morocco today, you will encounter Gnawa parading in neighborhoods, and it is part of the codes of conduct to let them enter the home they pick, gift them money, food, and water. Similar to Issawa, they form ties with the communities they connect with and offer collective healing.
Sidi Mimun and the Black Spirits
To go back to the Saturnian archetypes, Saturn (zuhal) is the Seventh Planet also corresponding to the Jinn King Maymun (Sidi Mimun) whose name means Prosperous and Lucky. In Gnawa cosmology, Sidi Mimun is part of the M’luks (King Spirits) that represent a colour/archetype and open the doors to the other entities [there are seven colors and seven suites of spirits]. Sidi Mimun and Lalla Mimuna in Gnawa cosmology represent the door openers to the spiritual world, they are the gatekeepers between the shadow and the light, the material and the spiritual. This concept of contrast then transmutation comes from the origins of Sidi Mimun/Lalla Mimuna in Moroccan legends, who are believed to have been enslaved, then freed to become prosperous and obtain a status of power and sainthood. Sidi Mimun/Lalla Mimuna are representative of dichotomies themselves, representing struggle and liberation, light and shadow, the masculine and the feminine.
Gnawa mastered this idea of the Saturnian paradigm representing transmutation, and it is obviously closely tied to their ancestral histories and memories. For a Gnawi, Sidi Mimun is the opener of the gates and a skilled blacksmith, he controls what needs to be welcomed and what should be removed, and he masters the material and spiritual energies equally. That is the idea of Saturn, rooted in earth elements, it is concerned with recycling waste then transmuting the waste, understanding that materials are only prosperous when in alignment with the spiritual evolution (and vice versa). This concept is also mastered in Jewish traditions of Morocco, notably amongst Jewish Gnawa groups.
Unfortunately not commonly known but still present in small numbers, the Sebtiyy’in (their name refers to Saturday/of Saturday) are another sub-group of Gnawa, merging Hebraic, Black and Arabo-Amazigh traditions. The reference to Saturday (Saturnday) goes back to the recounts of Sephardic Jews who came from Spain to Morocco and would gather every Saturday with Gnawa to celebrate and sing songs of worship. The Sebtiyy’in appropriated this tradition, but kept the same repertoire/musical corpus, except for an emphasis on Sidi Mimum and the Black spirits linked to Saturn and the addition of poems sang in Hebrew/Ladino. Again, this showcases the natural embodiment of Saturn by Jewish Moroccans, Shabbat becoming an opportunity for detachment from the material world and the purging of heavy energies to make space for further prosperity. The Sebtiyy’in ceremony is closely tied to the generation of prosperity as well, they set up a table with food in abundance, in contrast to Gnawa who fast throughout the night as way to reconcile with “lack”.
And lastly…
Gnawa cosmology and overall North African spiritual traditions understand Saturn’s oscillation between shadow and light and they embody the purging necessary needed to master the material world we live in. The Lilas themselves are a manifestation of this, and trance is an ancient practice of psychotherapy that allows individuals to simultaneously connect and disconnect from their bodies. The archetypes, colours and spirits are universal symbols that allow people to connect with their psyche beyond a limited language. In the case of Baba Mimun, Lalla Mimuna, Ghumami and all the Black Spirits (spirits of the Forest), we understand the connection to the shadows in our ancestral and corporal memories, and collectively, we allow more healing, not by running away from struggle, but by welcoming it then transmuting it, from psyche to earth and from earth to our psyche.
You will hear repetitions in the song above : allah ya’fu in darija, meaning God Forgive to open the next sequences. A purging of sins and pleading for salvation.
“Let’s begin with a physical metaphor that is part of the word’s root meaning: Afu til … (Arabic?). This is an image of the wind blowing across the desert vastness and completely erasing all the tracks in the sand. It is as if no one had ever walked there. Such a fundamental image in the root of the word shows us that with al-‘Afuw, you do not even notice the fault.”
until our next Gnawa encounter,
Bayt Zuhal
by Salma.
References :
Hamel, Chouki El. “Constructing a Diasporic Identity: Tracing the Origins of the Gnawa Spiritual Group in Morocco.” The Journal of African History 49, no. 2 (2008): 241–60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40206641.
“In This Issue.” Pe’amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry / פעמים: רבעון לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח, no. 117 (2008): V–VII. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23432450.
Sum, Maisie. “Music of the Gnawa of Morocco: Evolving Spaces and Times.” (Ph.D Thesis, The University of British Columbia, 2012).
Beautiful! Have looked up “Lilas people” and “Lilas Sufi” [after seeing it is the name of a village in Iran] but have not found enlightenment on your last paragraph. Help please :)