Morocco: Body and Soul

Performed by the sheikhat, the "troubadour women," the aita is the cry which becomes a song, the song which becomes an invocation: to the past, to witness suffering and to surpass one's self. Both a religious pilgrimage and a folk festival, the moussem of Moulay Abdallah is the ideal place for the aita. Fatma Bent El Hocine, with her company Oulad Aguida, sings for the horsemen, who celebrate in the fantasia the glorious moments of the Moroccan epic.

Shown at "Crossroads: The North Africa and Middle East Film Festival" in New York City (Public Theater) May 5-31, 1995.

Shown in New York City (French Institute) as part of program "Morocco: A Celebration" March 14-20, 1996.

16mm

color

dialogue Arabic and French

subtitled English

Black Africa flows in the veins of Morocco. Originally slaves who began to arrive in the 15th century with the gold of Western Sudan, the Gnawas gathered into brotherhoods which continue to practice rituals of possession and exorcism, borrowing as much from pre-Islamic culture as from the rituals of the African deities. These religious and theraputic ceremonies, accompanied by the bass of the hajhouj lute (or sintir) the crackling of metal castanets (garageb), and the heavy beat of the drums, call for the mlouk, the beneficial genie, who will come down upon the dancer at the height of his trance.

Malhoune signifies the "song of the dialectical word." The musical selections, which occur "as often as the day rises" in Marrakech and Meknes, are the living patrimony of Moroccan popular poetry. Similar to classical poetry, the malhoune is also the millenary expression of popular wisdom, of the hopes of Mankind, and the mirror or everday reality.