Music. The Gnaoua Festival celebrates its 20th edition

In Essaouira, a host of stars participate in the celebration of the pacifist Tagnaouite. Amazigh Kateb, Ray Lema, Titi Robin, Hindi Zahra ...

Soon twenty years of existence! Yet, at its founding in 1998, the Gnaoua Festival and world music launched a sacred challenge: to work for the recognition of gnaoui musicians, long ignored, even despised. Over the years, a host of stars have succumbed to the magic of the souiri city - Oumou Sangaré, Ibrahim Maalouf, Omar Sosa, Wayne Shorter, Archie Shepp, Danyèl Waro, Didier Lockwood, Ayo, Maceo Parker or Hindi Zahra.

This year, there will be "blues" (like the immense bluesman Lucky Peterson), who will discover the musical and human madness that sets the ancient Mogador on fire during the demonstration. Brazilian Carlinhos Brown and Senegalese Ismaël Lô are highly anticipated. Artists wanted to come back for this anniversary. Among them, Amazigh Kateb, Ray Lema, Band of Gnawa (Loy and Tao Ehrlich, Maâlem Saïd Boulhimas, Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Eric Löhrer, Cyril Atef ...) and Titi Robin. The latter will invite to the nuptials of the Indo-Pakistani Sufism and the tagnaouite (art and philosophy gnaoui).

Franco-Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra will take back songs from her albums, especially the last one, Homeland: "The Gnaoua Festival and music of the world has laid considerable ground for the recognition of the Gnaoua, but also other brotherhoods Aïssawa and Hamadcha, regularly scheduled, she recalls. It has helped to raise the status of these musicians. It offers a rich representation of a peaceful Muslim spiritual movement. This movement is at the crossroads of animism and Sufism. It is rooted in pre-Islamicism, especially in pre-Islamic Africa. From this expression of freedom, we need today more than ever, with the tragedies that hit the planet everywhere. Who talks about religion should talk about peace and love. "How far we have come since 1998! In 2009, the association Yerma Gnaoua, in association with the festival, was promoted for the promotion and dissemination of the Gnaoua heritage. She has to her credit concrete achievements: the edifying Anthologie des Gnaoua, obtaining a social insurance and artist card for the musicians of the brotherhoods, etc. There was also the inscription of the medina on Unesco's world heritage.