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A digital space detailing the ancestral music traditions of the Southern Draa Valley. Click on a musical style for quick navigation or scroll down to learn more about this initiative
Watch Joudour Sahara Director Halim Sbai describe the importance of cultural and environmental preservation efforts undertaken by Joudour Sahara
The impetus for a cultural documentation initiative came from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, a flagship cultural program granted by the U.S Department of State and U.S. Embassy in Morocco to Joudour Sahara. The AFCP project lasted from 2016 – 2019
Joudour Sahara’s programming has evolved beyond the AFCP project, and ongoing cultural preservation and transmission now lies at the core of our identity
Check out the dynamic ways in which Joudour Sahara promotes the preservation and practice of the cultural heritage of the Southern Draa Valley
Documenting the diverse songs of the Southern Draa Valley
Zamane Festival offers opportunities to more than 100 traditional musicians annually
Practicing and preserving music and dance with the next generation
The Southern Draa Valley comprises the region of Zagora, made up of the Ternata, Fezouata, Ktaoua, and M'hamid oases. This is the southern most section of the Draa Valley. Diverse groups and tribes have resided in, migrated to, and settled this region for thousands of years
Music from the Draa Oases
Watch this video to see Playing For Change guitarist Roberto Luti perform live with Akalal musicians from Timtig at the Joudour Sahara Cafe
Click the Context button to learn more about the history and geography of Akalal music
M'hamid El Ghizlane
M'hamid El Ghizlane
A Nomadic Tradition from the Aarib Tribes
Follow the button to learn more about Chamra
An Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Timtig
Watch this video to see Gnawan musician Azeddine Ait Faraji guide us through a traditional Ganga music class with Gnawan youth as young as 8 years old
Intergenerational exchange is a cornerstone of Joudour Sahara’s programming and a key to sustainable cultural preservation. Follow the button to learn more about the Ganga heritage
Indigenous North African Heritage of the Amazigh Tribes
Ait Msaoud Tizgine
Native North African Heritage of the Amazigh Tribes
Follow the button to learn more about Ahidous
Poetry of the Draa Valley
Ksar Talha
Poetry of the Draa Valley
Rokba music persists as a music associated with the ksour (villages) of the Draa Valley, performed at large community events in the squares of each village (ksar). Rokba music has become famous for its long poetic interludes, serving as oral histories of the Draoua people. Within the southern Draa Valley, Rokba music is performed throughout villages such as Ksar Timtig, Ksar Talha Beni Mohammed, Ksar M’hamid El Ghizlane, Ksar Oulad M’haya, among many others
Click the Context button to learn more about the Rokba tradition
Cultural preservation is not just about preserving history. In the Southern Draa Valley, Joudour Sahara believes this is an active process so as to push traditions into the present and into the future. We engage youth to become participants in this process to take ownership over their cultural inheritances
Watch this video of a Rokba ‘class’ that we organized positioning the youth of Talha to learn and perform Rokba music with local elders
The Draoua people of southern Morocco are in fact a group of multiple ethnic tribes, who over the course of several centuries, have adopted the term “Draoua” to refer to the fact that they have come to settle the oases over the centuries. The Draoua people of the Fezouata Oasis, inhabiting Ksar Timtig, perform Akalal music, which is itself a combination of several styles of music. First, there is Def music, performed with a handheld tara and tareja, and the accompaniment of up to 30 musicians clapping along to the rhythm. Second, there is Siyf music, a sonic landscape in and of itself, featuring the handheld def, tara, the wielding of swords (siyouf), and a flute accompaniment.
First, there is Def music, performed with a handheld tara and tareja, and the accompaniment of up to 30 musicians clapping along to the rhythm. Second, there is Siyf music, a sonic landscape in and of itself, featuring the handheld def, tara, the wielding of swords (siyouf), and a flute accompaniment.
Aarib people have roamed throughout the Sahara desert since their ancestors came westward from the Middle East, bringing Islam to Africa with them. Their musical tradition Chamra is a reflection of this nomadic heritage, and as the nomadic lifestyle has been irrevocably changed by external factors such as the creation of borders among Saharan countries, Chamra music survives as a remnant of a nomadic past. Chamra music is traditionally performed outside the nomadic encampment by a circle of kneeling Aarib men, swaying, clapping, and chanting around an Aarib woman dancing among them, driven by the pulse of the beating Guedra drum.
The Guedra drum itself is nomadic in nature, made from the same pot used to cook dinner, after it has been cleaned and covered by a goat hide. The female dancers are traditionally unmarried women whose performance traditionally served to court male suitors.
As the Aarib people roamed across the great Sahara desert, over the last half century they have migrated into sedentary communities, whether it be outside of Timbuktu in northern Mali, or within the town centers throughout the oases of the southern Draa Valley like M’hamid El Ghizlane and Tagounite. This has changed how Chamra music has been performed, and now performances typically take place at joyous occasions (farah) such as weddings or baby-naming ceremonies (usboa’), or at festivals or community events.
Gnawan people in the southern Draa Valley trace their ancestry back to southwestern Algeria and northern Mali as recently as two generations ago, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa from as far back as several centuries ago. The Ganga music they perform is an adaption of slave music performed by their ancestors, a reflection on the conditions of slavery through the lyrics, instrumental soundscapes, and dance that accompanies the musical performance. Ganga musicians tell stories – of suffering or of redemption or of submission to God – through their lyrics – “They brought us from Sudan” – through their instruments – the metallic krakech imitate the sound of chains used to enslave Gnawan ancestors – and through their dance – the Ganga musicians reenact everything from forced migration to the granting of their freedom. Ganga music at its heart is a reclamation of an identity that was once taken away.
Gnawan people historically were brought into Morocco from all corners of Africa over the course of several centuries, and Gnawan people in the urban hubs of Marrakech and Essaouira differ ethnically and culturally from those in the southern Draa Valley. The Arab and Amazigh nomadic tribal groups that have since settled throughout the Fezouata, Ktawa and M’hamid oases brought with them slaves from nearby Saharan countries, who have since been granted their freedom and populated throughout the southern Draa Valley. The Moussem honoring Sidi Muhammad bin Nasir in Tamegroute celebrates Gnawan and Ganga culture annually.
The Amazigh people of North Africa have been living on the continent for several millenia. Several related languages are spoken among the Amazigh, from Tamazight and Tachelheit in southern Morocco, to Tarafit in northern Morocco, and Tameshaqt among the Amazigh Touareg people in Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania. Throughout most of this history – up until colonization and the closing of the Moroccan/Algerian border – the Amazigh people lived nomadically, and in the northwestern Sahara desert, where the Draa River meets the desert among the Bani Mountains and Kem Kem beds, and into the Hamada Draa desert, the Ait Atta, Ait Ghanima, and Ait Ouanzar Amazigh tribes have been performing Ahidous music wherever they have roamed. Ahidous can best be described as a pastime – a defining cultural characteristic that brought men and women and boys and girls together, lining up across from each other outside their encampments, moving at times in unison and at times separately, calling and responding, singing about the human experience as lived in the desert, about love and heartbreak, about their relationship with nature, and their relationship with God.
Since colonization and the establishment of the town centers of along the Draa River, such as Ait Msaoud Tizgine, the Amazigh people have migrated from the surrounding mountains and desert into these town centers. Ahidous music survives as a reminder of a nomadic heritage and an invaluable cultural relic, indistinguishable from local Amazigh identity.
During the time of warfare between tribes, the Draoua people would celebrate victory with a dance imitating the pounding of the hooves of a horse gearing towards heading into battle. “Rokba” in fact means “knee”, and the music is named after this motion – the lifting of the knee in unison and stomping of the foot. “Draoua” refers broadly to people of the Draa River Valley, diverse in ethnicity and background, but during the time of warfare was an identifier to distinguish the non-Amazigh, non-Aarib, and non-Jewish ethnic groups who settled along the Draa River, working the land to establish and maintain the lush oases and build the magnificent fortified villages (ksour) that would bring nomadic caravans from Timbuktu and beyond for the greater part of the first millenium B.C.E. The descendants of these “Draoua” people are of mixed ethnicity, but have been united culturally by the traditions associated with Rokba music.
Rokba music is no longer performed as wartime music as peace has reigned among the tribal groups in the region for the last several centuries. Rokba music persists however, as a music that is now associated with the ksour of the Draa Valley, performed at weddings and large community events in the squares of each village (ksar). Rokba music has become famous for its long poetic interludes, serving as oral histories of the Draoua people. Within the southern Draa Valley, Rokba music is performed throughout the Fzouata, Ktawa, and M’hamid oases, in villages such as Ksar Timtig, Ksar Talha, Ksar M’hamid El Ghizlane, Ksar Oulad M’haya, among many others.
