Derdeba

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Derdeba , pl . Dradeb, also known as Lila, Laila ( Arabic for "night"), is a nocturnal religious ceremony of the Gnawa , a Sufi brotherhood in Morocco that goes back to black African slaves . At the climax of the event, which is part of an obsession cult , the ghosts ( jinn ) , by which the patients believe they are attacked, are to be evoked and appeased by dances and the music of the plucked Gimbri . Derdeba ceremonies begin with a procession and an animal sacrifice, and they usually take place in private homes in Marrakech and Essaouira . As an element of therapy for the individual and the identification of the group, the entire ritual is integrated into the cosmogonic world concept of the Gnawa. The aim is to show how the soul finds its way from life to death and back to life, passing through the seven colors of the universe on the way. These symbolize the growth of nature (especially barley ) and the course of human life.

Cultural environment

Gnawa are a popular Islamic Sufi brotherhood ( Tariqa ) , they have developed their own music and dance culture with which they draw attention to themselves in public places and through street processions. Because of these appearances, which are considered un-Islamic for Orthodox Muslims, and because of their history, they are at the bottom of Moroccan society. The different names are related to their origin in the Sudan region . Gnawa was derived from the countries of Guinea and Ghana (via Ghanawi). According to a Berber dialect, gnawi (agnaw) is the plural of igginaw and means "black".

Black African slaves were brought into the country from the 9th or 11th century. The Alawid Sultan Mulai Ismail (r. 1672-1727) built a slave army to secure the border of his empire in the east on the edge of the Middle Atlas , which he left behind after conquering the area to guard the kasbahs from Taza via Sefrou to Beni-Mellal . The soldiers swore their oath of allegiance not to the Koran (the "book from above" in the Gnawa worldview), but to the hadith collection of al-Buchari (the "book from below, from the earth"). To swear on the Koran would have meant that it would then not have been possible to enslave the soldiers as Muslims. Female slaves served as concubines to Arabs and Berbers . It was not until 1911 that the French officially prohibited the slave trade , which continued illegally for a long time. Only a part of the former slaves are Gnawa, but the origin from slavery is their most essential identity feature and leads to self-classification as “black”, although in addition to black Africans, Arabs, Berbers and Jews can also be members of the order. Gnawa consider themselves “black” and “slaves” regardless of their ethnic or social origin.

In addition to the unity of the slave history, the performance of the Derdeba healing ritual is decisive for belonging to the Gnawa. In this a multitude of spirits are evoked. The spirits known as jinn in Islam usually do not have individual character traits and are seldom invoked by their own name. Few exceptions are referred to as "individual spirits", who are also worshiped in Morocco by some other brotherhoods. In the north, for example, the beautiful female spirit Aisha Qandisha takes possession of men. It is at the center of the Hamajas cult of possession.

Throughout the Maghreb there are several “black” brotherhoods that see themselves as descendants of African slaves, of which the Gnawa is the largest and most active. Most trace their origins back to Sidi Bilal as the spiritual founder of the order. Bilal was a Christian African (Ethiopian) who lived as a slave in Mecca , converted to Islam and became the first muezzin of the Prophet Muhammad . In Tunisia is the counterpart to the Derdeba Stambali - rite of Soudanis mentioned former black slaves organized. Therapies of obsessed patients in an Islamic setting through music and dance are generally of Black African origin. Comparable continue to be the spirits of the Tuareg , those with Tendering - is countered music, the spirits of Bori - and the Dodo -Kults in Hausa , the majority of women practiced Czar - cult in Egypt and Sudan as well as the Pepo - (Shetani) - Cult in Tanzania . Under the umbrella of Christianity, the Mashawe obsession cults are cultivated in parts of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and Vimbuza in Malawi and Zambia.

Like the Gnawa, the Muslim Zara (Bobo-Jula) who immigrated from the south to Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso from the 16th century onwards have remained a culturally independent population group. Men in tight-fitting white fabrics appear at night as mask dancers (Lo Gue) and, like the Gnawa, evoke a multitude of possessive spirits that must be appeased with comparable methods.

Djinn are a significant part of the popular dimension of Islam. The idea that mental illnesses are caused by jinn goes way back in history. The Arabic word madschnūn, "crazy", is also translated as "possessed by the mind". With the exception of Aisha Qandisha, who is a problem for Moroccan men, the ghosts predominantly attack women; Female spirits play an important role in all cults, and often - as with the Gnawa - the leaders of the ceremonies are women.

mythology

Another possible derivation of the word Gnawa comes from the Berber language Tamazight , in which igri ignawan means "field of the cloudy sky". What is meant is a whirlwind. Himmelsfeld is a paraphrase for the star Aldebaran , which the Gnawa also call amzil ("blacksmith") and is at the center of their cosmogonic conception of the world. Blacksmiths in the earthly world (among the Tuareg inads, among the Mauritanian Bidhan maʿllemīn ) are a marginal but influential population group who are said to have magical powers. In the Tuareg dialect from the Ahaggar , dar gennaouen means "area cloud heaps".

The Gnawa are divided into two groups, only one of which refers to Sidi Bilal as their spiritual ancestor. The other group calls themselves the slaves of Lalla Mimuna (or Lalla L'Krima), female saints who are revered as black queens. The members of the second Gnawa direction also fall into a trance at certain meetings , but they do not perform obsessional dances. Their music performances on the street, where they collect donations, take place exclusively during the day. Since they do not act at night, they cannot evoke ghosts. They come from the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains and the oasis places on the edge of the Sahara. The slaves of the Lalla Mimuna form the female counterpart to the “male” slaves who worship (the male) Sidi Bilal and who practice Derdeba. The Gnawa establish an external relationship with the Sufi orders Aissaoua and Qādirīya . Like the Hamadscha, Aissaoua live at the bottom of society, many of their members are day laborers or blacksmiths. From the Gnawa perspective, they too belong to their female counterpart.

The first sacrificed living being was divided into seven parts according to the Gnawa mythology, so that each order received one part. The musical instruments of each order were made from the seven parts of the skin. The colorful woolen dress (derbala) of the Sufis was first worn by Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani , the founder of the Qadiriya. It was from him that Sidi Heddi, founder of the Heddawa order of beggars who worshiped cats, received it when he was a child. Siddi Heddi washed the dress allegedly already worn by Sidi Bilal in heaven and patched it up. It consists of red, white and blue patches that symbolize the union of the seven heavens and seven earths, which belong to the Gnawa creation myth.

Blacksmith

A fundamental characteristic of Gnawa cosmogony is the correspondence between elements of the otherworldly and everyday life (law of equivalence). The first symbol is the blacksmith, who is called haddad in everyday life , but el-buchari (from the scholar al-Buchari ) in a religious context and is immortal on the mythical level. It represents itself in very different forms in the cosmic realm. The blacksmith embodies the cycle of death and resurrection, because of whose eternal up and down movement he is called "the monkey", which is also a euphemistic word for penis. The blacksmith's wife is his anvil. At the first blood sacrifice in world history, the mythical model for circumcision , the blacksmith was beheaded and his head, which is also his wife, fell out of heaven. In the social structure of the region, all craftsmen are understood as blacksmiths, regardless of the material they use. The cosmic blacksmith also embodies the woodworker who felled trees and made plows and drums. When he attacked the World Tree , he seized space, which was originally upright like the tree, and turned it into a curved space like the body of a drum. The reference to the hadith collection of al-Buchari occurs because there the ascent of the Prophet to the sixth degree of heaven and his vision of the world tree in the seventh heaven is described ( sura 53 : the star ).

Bukhari can also be the name of a horse. Like Buraq , the mythical mount with which Mohammed flies to heaven one night, Bukhari carries the possessed during the trance. Furthermore, the master ( qaid ) of the royal stables is called Bukhari. He helps the Sultan mount one of the seven horses that lead the official procession from the palace to the mosque. Bukhari walks behind the riding ruler. Otherwise, the incumbent is responsible for the immediate removal of the dead from the palace district. The heavenly blacksmith Bukhari appears in a wider context in the human form of Kusam ibn Abbas . This cousin of Muhammad, a Shiite martyr, was beheaded by the enemy and disappeared with his head in his arms into the opening of a rock that closed over him. He lives near an underground river. His qubba (mausoleum) is located in the Shahi Sinda necropolis in Uzbekistan. The immortal head, separated in both stories, embodies the sun. The same in turn is the severed head of the red-light snake, which circles the earth on the horizon at dusk and dawn. The sun was sacrificed at night, and at daybreak it rises from the dead. Derdeba can be translated as “great noise”, another name for the ceremony is lailā, Arabic “night”. The time frame from sunset to sunrise equates the healing ceremony with the cosmic events.

The cosmic blacksmith is imagined as the Milky Way , which can be seen flat in the night sky in summer. It is shared by the sun and the planets emerging from the world tree of Sidi Moussa (the biblical Moses ). This saint is venerated in several places, a mausoleum is on the Atlantic coast in the district of Salé of the same name . Regarding the role of the planets: If Venus is in the east (direction of prayer Qibla ), she is the star of the prophet, has the task of dying, resurrecting and making sacrifices. Venus in the west is called Zorah, she is sacrificed and is the star of Lalla Fatima .

The world tree in its earthly existence is the Mediterranean jujube , Arabic ṣder . It is sacred to the Gnawa. The thorny branches of this medium-high deciduous tree act as hedges (zeriba) to protect homesteads and the bundles of grain stacked in threshing areas. The hedge marks the boundary of a family's private space. In the minds of the Gnawa, the tree consists of three different branches that extend from the red trunk: a yellow branch with apricots hanging from it protrudes to the left, a black branch with figs grows in the middle and a white branch with grapes growing around it on the right the other branches twist. The spirits are divided according to color, only the spirits of the corresponding color pass through the branches. The earth from which all spirits of the underworld come is black. There are one or more jujube trees in all Gnawa locations.

Farmer

Like the blacksmith, the peasant is a mythological construction that creates connections between the cosmos and everyday life. There is a connection between agriculture (more precisely the barley ear) and weaving. For the Gnawa, Sidi Bilal was the first farmer ( fellache ) who tilled a field that was irrigated with qanats (in Morocco khittara ). In the southern oases, each field is divided into two halves, then into quarters and further into smaller plots, which are separated from one another by low earth embankments (gemun) . In rain-fed crops south of Marrakech, plowing takes place every autumn in a direction that changes 90 degrees in order to identify the furrows with the warp threads and the weft when weaving . With the Berbers, the warp threads are called alam , as is the first furrow that is plowed to demarcate the plots. Agriculture and weaving appeared on earth at the same time in creation history that the first tribal elder ( chorfa ) burned down all the jujuba trees that covered the land. According to another version, the first field is said to have come from heaven when a festival of sacrifices was held in the Muslim month of Shābān . This month precedes Ramadan ; it is the time when the jinn are particularly active and the Gnawa perform their rituals. In the Shaban, Sidi Bilal ascends to heaven and dies.

The barley ear stands for the patient who has to suffer through all the growth phases of the grain during the possession dance. Man has seven souls, just as barley consists of seven parts. An assistant during the ritual represents the blacksmith and the farmer, he supports that the patient is killed, divided and then reborn analogous to the fate of the sun and the cosmic blacksmith. As the grain seeds sprout from the ground and become plants, the patient goes through growth phases. The body of the blacksmith traverses the underground dead souls until they unite with the heavenly souls.

The farmer is responsible for the nutrition of the blacksmith and all the people who have emerged from the blacksmith's body. He brings the grain to the threshing floor, where he separates the chaff from the grain by throwing the threshed pile of grain into the air with pitchforks. In the Gnawa symbolism, men and women were separated in this way. Seeds are kept because living souls are included in them. So the seeds give life to man and the cosmic blacksmith. When he ascends to heaven, he can dissolve the separation of heaven and earth through his dance.

Grain market

Some of the grains are buried in warehouses, the other part is sold on the grain market (rahba) . At this place in the cities, which is also religiously significant, oaths were previously taken on the Koran and slaves were sold. It is therefore one of the basic Gnawa symbols. It is the daytime market where all business is done, so it represents heaven and stars. Symbolically speaking, the buyer is the sun; the goods sold are like stars rising into the sky at sunrise. The sale of wool in particular has a mythical significance. Wool is a symbol of knowledge and the mystical union that is expressed in the woolen dress of the Sufis. The Arabic word suf ("wool") is a derivation for Sufism . Gnawa compare the woolen dress worn by the patient during the possession ceremony with protruding fur hair, his journey to the hereafter and with the branches of the world tree reaching upwards.

Sacrificial animals

The counterpart to the grain market is the slaughterhouse (gurna) , where the first sterile cow (agra) was sold instead of a slave and later fertilized by the wind. It was slaughtered and cut up by the blacksmith. The cow is the sexual organ of the female sleeping earth, which was originally covered with jujuba trees. The cow symbolizes the cosmic snake dunya, which is presented as red light or as branches (zeriba) of the world tree. She rises from the earth and rises to heaven with a billy goat on top. Goat or sheep are the usual sacrifices at the beginning of the derdeba. Two chickens represent the whirlwinds that set everything in motion and rotate in opposite directions. They make the snake rise and fall.

Gimbri

The light music played on the Gimbri during the day is called fraja , in contrast to the nightly ritual music, purple . Alms collectors in Marrakech

The three-string plucked gimbri is the most powerful tool for calling in the ghosts in the Derdeba. The "immortal" musical instrument represents the body of the blacksmith. It's Sultan or Allah and whoever plays it is Bilal, his slave. The gimbri is related to death, the possessed patient, and grain seeds. At night the instrument can only be played in a protected room, where it is accompanied by qaraqib (krakeb , loud iron hand clatter ). During the day, the “male” instrument is supported by two “female” drums ( T'bol , also Ganga ).

cosmogony

The basic principles of African cosmogonies include the separation of prehistoric men and gods and the establishment of a permanent order in the world. The previous creation of the same, on the other hand, is rarely a separate topic. The ingenious model of the Dogon is an exception ; the notions of the Gnawa, which are more widespread in Asia, are also something special for Africa. The cosmogonic concept of the Gnawa is applied in the Derdeba healing ritual.

The world emerged from a snake egg (cf. Weltenei ) which lay on the primordial ocean, was covered and fertilized by the night. Otherwise there was only sterile black earth. The two previously mentioned whirlwinds blew in opposite directions and broke the egg. The egg white emerged first, evaporated, and then disappeared into the darkness. The "red" yolk sank into the black earth, where it formed a rock that rose on the underground waters. White and red were divided into seven parts each, so that there were seven earths and seven heavens above. The black below and the white above have endeavored to reunite ever since. The red came from the black earth and became the snake (dunya) that surrounds the earth on the horizon. As the world tree rises into the sky, the female snake with her male head was lifted up by the rising whirlwind. At night her head broke the white sky. From this first sexual union emerged the basic elements, including the blood that soaked the black earth; a scarf as a turban on the head of the snake, made of white wool and the seven colors; Milk, water and the tree of life of Sidi Moussa (Moses). After this union, the night cut off the serpent's head. It caught fire and became the sun in our world. The spirits were activated by the same action. The black spirits migrated through the serpent into the earth, while the white spirits cling to the serpent's hair and remained in the sky. With the first field that fell from the sky, they came to earth.

Transferred from the cosmic view of the world to the myth of history , the serpent becomes the minaret that towers towards the sky . Above, Sidi Bilal calls out to prayer until he falls down, struck by the arrows of the Jews. Once on earth, the prophet brings him to life. The Derdeba ceremony is the cosmic marriage of heaven and earth at night.

Healing ceremony

Gnawa musician around 1920 with Ṭbal and Qaraqib

The Gnawa received the ability to heal through the mediation of the Sufi scholar al-Jazuli (1390 - 1465) through Sidi Bilal from Allah . They have the Islamic blessing power of baraka , which alone is not sufficient for healing, which is why the Derdeba healing ceremony and other accompanying measures are necessary. One of the medicinal prescriptions is a visit to al-Dschazuli's tomb ( Qubba ) in the old town of Marrakech, who is also venerated as one of the Seven Saints of Marrakech in a circular pilgrimage. Visiting sacred places for the jinn and eating special diets can also help.

Unlike the weekly meetings of other Sufi orders, the Derdeba ceremony can take place at any time if a sufficient number of patients seeking help have gathered. The strictly defined process consists of three phases: an opening procession l'aada in the afternoon (which is commonly called dakhla among Sufis ), a middle phase, kouyou, with profane (external) dances to the music of the gimbri, and a third sacral (internal) Phase, mlouk, from midnight, when the spirits are called and the obsession dances take place. If the event takes place on a larger scale than a cosmic marriage in analogy to a human wedding, it lasts three days. On the preceding day one ( tengya, "sieve" with which the grain is separated from the rest) invitations are issued and the Gnawa members bring sacrificial animals or silver to the moqaddem , the head of the brotherhood. The latter symbolizes the bride price of the presented wedding. The following day three ( halu, "sweet, sugared") includes the meal of a billy goat - representing the head of the dunya - and the chickens - corresponding to the whirlwinds. Halu is the name of the meal that the husband receives on the morning after the wedding.

Profane part

Before the ceremony, the patients should know what special spirit (milk, pl. Mluk) they are afflicted with. For this they consult a seer / healer (chouafa) who works with the organizers of the Derdeba and determines the necessary ritual. The afternoon procession, if it takes place in Marrakech, starts either at the mausoleum of al-Jazuli or at the house of one of the musicians. The Gnawa pull playing music with the master (Maalem) beaten drum Ganga and several Qaraqib players through the lanes of the old. They wear black and red djellabas , loudly praise Allah and attract the attention of passers-by, who are later expected as spectators at the ceremony. When they arrive at the venue, often the house of the chouafa, they are greeted with milk and dates in the glow of candles. Now the sacrificial animal (a billy goat) is slaughtered and prepared so that it can be eaten later.

The second phase (kouyou) begins in the inner courtyard of this house from around 8 p.m. with entertainment dances and spectators. To the music of a gimbri, several qaraqib and clapping hands, the slave past of the Gnawa is evoked at this event. The first part of the kouyou is called Ouled Bambara, meaning "descendants of the Bambara ". The songs, performed in a Gnawa Creole language that is difficult for strangers to understand , deal with the enslavement from Sudan , they have titles like Soudani lallaya ma , "oh Sudan, my mother". The dancers in their long djellabas are abundantly hung with chains of cowrie shells . As an acting implementation of slavery, a dancer appears whose feet are tied with a scarf from which he tries to free himself. Another dancer mimes the slave owner and wants to prevent this.

After about two hours, the second part (nuqscha) follows , in which the previously subdued and dignified mood brightens and becomes more joyful. The line of sight turns from the past to the saints, Mohammed and Allah, who are now invoked. The dozen saints include Sidi Bilal, al-Jazuli, and Lalla Fatima . The prize songs are now sung in Moroccan Arabic with the participation of the patients who carry candles in procession around the courtyard. At midnight, the chouafa entertains those present with the prepared meal, after which everyone rests while drinking tea .

Viviana Paques describes another sequence of the two-part profane phase: In the first part, called uqba , the theme here is the creation of the world instead of the historical myth. The nuqscha part, which takes place after eating and drinking tea, is about the “opening of the grain market” (ftaʿ el-rahba) . To do this, the members of the Gnawa leave the house and pull through the streets with two drums. The men in front symbolize the head of the dunya when she seduced heaven above earth. They carry a shallow bowl that contains milk and dates, sperm and blood symbols. Behind the men are the women, each with two candles in hand. You embody the Milky Way. Through the sexual act, heaven is opened and connected to earth, the Gnawa can return (enter) the house (the sacred place) and begin the possession ceremony.

Sacral part

The healing ceremony is led by the gimbri player. He is the master musician (maalem) and embodies the dead blacksmith. The nightly music (purple) has the power to evoke the possessive spirit of every patient. First, the chouafa and their helpers bring the cloth cloaks required for the patients in one of the seven colors of the corresponding jinn category, plus special food and incense sticks to lure out the possessed spirits (mluk) . The seven fabrics together make up the white turban that Sidi Bilal wore on his head as he struck the sky while standing on the minaret. The order in which the spirits are called by their names in the songs is strictly regulated.

First the white jinns are called. These are particularly powerful because they are descendants of the family of prophets ( chorfa ) . In the songs they are addressed as "men of God". Second are the black jinns. It is the color of powers related to the time of slavery like Lalla Aisha , Lalla Mimuna and Sidi Mimoun El Soudani. The blue jinn come out of the waters. They are led by Sidi Moussa Bahri, the spirit of Niger. Sidi Hammouda (Hamu) and El Bania are among the particularly dangerous red jinns. Some important saints like Mulai Ibrahim and Abdelkader (song: "Mulai Abdelkader, who wears the green cloth") are green. Another blue stands for the jinn of the light blue sky. Finally come the yellow jinn. These female ghosts flirt with young men of marriageable age. Holy Mera is yellow.

The patients in their colored robes move wildly to the rhythm of their mind, hoping to soothe it. To calm the mind, they hold cowries filled with medicine in their hands or wear the amulets in the folds of their cloaks. Some dance until they are completely exhausted and breathe in deeply the special incense of the spirit. The atmosphere is tense. The task of the musicians is to sing the songs necessary for each patient to reach the state of trance. The game of the gimbri is decisive. The chouafa and their helpers stand by and help the patient to reach the trance or to calm them down.

At daybreak, the maalem finishes playing the gimbri and picks up a drum. At this sign the ritual is over, all participants are exhausted and with the sunrise the new world begins. The therapeutic ritual should be repeated several times.

literature

  • René A. Bravmann: Islamic spirits and African artistry in Trans-Saharan perspective . In: Karin Ådahl, Berit Sahlström (Ed.): Islamic Art and Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Figura Nova Series 27) Uppsala 1995, pp. 57-69
  • Anette Drews: The power of music: African healing rituals in West Africa and in the diaspora in a cultural anthropological comparison (Brazil, Togo, Morocco) . Lit Verlag, Münster 2008, pp. 78–98
  • Viviana Paques: The Gnawa of Morocco. The Derdeba Ceremony. In: Wolfgang Weissleder (Ed.): The Nomadic Alternative. Modes and Models of Interaction in the African-Asian Deserts and Steppes. Mouton Publishers, Den Haag / Paris 1978, pp. 319-329
  • Maisie Sum: Staging the Sacred: Musical Structure and Processes of the Gnawa Lila in Morocco. In: Ethnomusicology , Vol. 55, No. 1, Winter 2011, pp. 77-111
  • Viviane Lièvre: The Dances of the Maghreb. Morocco - Algeria - Tunisia. (Translated by Renate Behrens. French original edition: Éditions Karthala, Paris 1987) Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2008, pp. 160f, ISBN 978-3-87476-563-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ René A. Bravmann, p. 64; Anette Drews, p. 78
  2. ↑ Anette Drews, p. 80
  3. ^ David R. Goodman-Singh, p. 76
  4. ↑ René A. Bravmann, pp. 60-64
  5. ↑ Viviana Paques, pp. 319-321
  6. ↑ Viviana Paques, pp. 321-326
  7. ↑ Viviana Paques, p. 327
  8. ↑ René A. Bravmann, p. 65
  9. ↑ Viviana Paques, pp. 327f
  10. ↑ René A. Bravmann, pp. 65-68
  11. ↑ Viviana Paques, pp. 327f
  12. ↑ René A. Bravmann, p. 68; Anette Drews, p. 98, was given the following colors: red, green, yellow, black, orange, purple, white
  13. ↑ René A. Bravmann, pp. 67-69, Viviane Lièvre, pp. 160f