by Geoff | Feb 12, 2020 | Essaouira, Jewish, Juif, Medina, Mellah, Morocco
Mellahs across Morocco have become synonomous with urban decay, poverty and increased risk. There is nothing different about the Mellah in Essaouira. Although culturally rich it has become neglected and necrosed. Here are some photographs at dusk portraying some...
by Geoff | Feb 12, 2020 | Aisha Qandisha, Essaouira, Gnaoua, Hamadcha, Morocco, Moulay Idriss Zerhouna, Northern Africa, Ouezzane, Sherif, Shrine, Sufi, Wazzan, Zaouia
UNFINISHED POST We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. Little Gidding T.S. Elliott It may seem incongruous to entitle a page about Islamic and African culture with...
by Geoff | Feb 12, 2020 | Art, Artist, Essaouira, Gnaoua, Morocco
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by Geoff | Feb 11, 2020 | Aisha Qandisha, Art, Artist, Essaouira, Gnaoua, Juif, Mellah, Morocco, Street art
Filali Mostafa paints in a small studio in Jotiya, close to the surging waves of the Atlantic ocean. Sourounded by the detritis of a flea market, his paintings of ordered simplicity and detail could not be further away from the unmitigated chaos of the landscape...
by Geoff | Feb 11, 2020 | India
Tanneries are synonomous with Morocco. In Fez especially the large tanneries throughout the city draw tourists by their thousands, each tourist being offered a sprig of mint as they gaze down from a terrace to counter the smell of the ancient processes. Many of...
by Geoff | Feb 2, 2020 | Art, Essaouira, Morocco, Music, Sufi
It is with enormous pleasure that I am able to document a group of women playing music in Essaouira. The Haddarates Souiriyattes practice regularly at La Recontre cafe which is next door to where I have resided. The chanting and drumming of Sufi music has...
by Geoff | Feb 1, 2020 | Essaouira, Gnaoua, Morocco, Northern Africa, Zaouia
I had tried on three previous occasions to visit Sidna Blal, the zaouia des Gnawa, but the formidable woman who seemed to live there steadfastly refused all my entreaties to enter. Today I visited with this woman’s son, Youssef, a guimbri player training to...
by Geoff | Jan 31, 2020 | Artist, Gnaoua, Morocco, Music, Northern Africa, Zaouia
In 2016 I wrote an article called The Sacred and the Profane, describing the two forms of Gnaoua music ( see http://sannyassa.co.uk/sacred-profane-gnaoua-world-music-festival-essaouira-2016/ ). In that article I identified the paradox that lay ahead for the Gnaouia; ...
by Geoff | Jan 22, 2020 | India, Morocco
Essaouira is one of the primary locations in Morocco where Gnaoua music comes to a focus. The Gnaoua World and Music Festival, unique in Morocco and held annually in Essaouira, is indicative of the cultural significance that Gnaoua music has in Essaouira. Gnaoua is...
by Geoff | Jan 12, 2020 | Essaouira, Morocco, Northern Africa, Street art
Downtown Mogadishu, circa 1991, amidst scenes depicting what appears to be the Somali Civil War, has temporarily been relocated to Essaouira. It is the location for a movie being made, so I am advised, by a South Korean film company. By the large murals on the... 
