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Assignment: Singing Morocco's new identity

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Asmâa Hamzaoui

31/08/2023 GMT

Singing Morocco's new identity

BBC World Service - Assignment, Singing Morocco's new identity

The young female stars of Gnawa music now challenging the boundaries of Moroccan identity

How Gnawa music, traditionally performed by descendants of enslaved people, helps uncover a little-mentioned chapter of Moroccan history.

Gnawa music is a Moroccan spiritual musical tradition developed by descendants of enslaved people from Sub-Saharan Africa. It combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dance, and is traditionally only performed by men. But one female Moroccan artist, Asmâa Hamzaoui, has broken the mould. She's become an international star, who has even performed for Madonna on her birthday. For Assignment, reporter Myriam Francois travels to Casablanca to meet Asmaa and her family, and follows her to the Essaouira Festival, the annual celebration of Gnawa culture.

What does its ever-growing popularity tell us about the changing identity of a country that once saw itself primarily as part of the Arab world, but has now become more interested in its links to the rest of the African continent?

Presenter: Myriam Francois
Producer: Tim Whewell
Series editor: Penny Murphy

(Photo: Asmâa Hamzaoui. Credit: Myriam Francois/BBC)

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