Lilla (Gnawa Ritual)
Gnawas practice a complex syncretic rite called "Lila or Derdeba" in Arabic during which followers are engaged in the practice of trance for therapeutic purposes. The ceremony is performed all the night for this reason it is also called Lila (meaning the night in Arabic). The Gnawa believe that many misfortunes that happen to people are not just accidental or inevitable but they could be caused by evil spirits. For this reason some people from all walks of life under the affliction from some acute illness, infertility, or depression come to seek Gnawa’s intercession. Sometimes some people would seek their intercession for the purpose to preserve the good fortune.
The ceremony takes places inside the house/shrine/center of a Gnawa family/group. The Lila is performed through a well established rituals, such as a sacrifice of sheep or a goat that assures the presence of the spirits. The Lila usually includes seven sections, which is represented by the seven saints and supernatural entities "Mluk". In addition to having particular characteristics of personality each Melk (sing. of Mluk) is associated with a particular color (white, blue, red, green, black, yellow). Because the Mluk must be invoked in a certain order, the lila follows a path through the night whose road is marked in the sensory realms of sound (music, song), sight (colors), smell (incense), and movement (dance). When a Melk is invoked, the Gnawa play its corresponding music, sing its corresponding invocations, dress the "trancers" in the appropriate colors, and burn the corresponding incense.
During the Lila the Maâlem (Lead musician or Maestro) plays the guenbri (a three-stringed bass lute) and other members of the group play krakebs (metallic castanets). Generally they all dance as well. The Lila is jointly animated by a Maâlem and by Moqadma or Shuwafa (clairvoyante) who is in charge of the accessories and clothing necessary to the ritual. The clairvoyante determines the accessories and clothing as it becomes ritually necessary. Meanwhile, the Maâlem, using the guembri and by burning incense, calls the saints and the supernatural entities to present themselves in order to take possession of the followers, who devote themselves to ecstatic dancing. The Lila will continues until the goal is achieved and the trance is over and the participants have been cleansed form their afflictions.
The first part of ceremony begins with an opening that consecrates the space, the aâda ("habit" or traditional norm), during which the musicians perform a swirling acrobatic dance, playing the krakebs. Later, the guembri opens the treq "path", the strictly encoded sequence of the ritual repertoire of music, dances that guide in the ecstatic trip across the realms of the seven Mluk.
The ceremony takes places inside the house/shrine/center of a Gnawa family/group. The Lila is performed through a well established rituals, such as a sacrifice of sheep or a goat that assures the presence of the spirits. The Lila usually includes seven sections, which is represented by the seven saints and supernatural entities "Mluk". In addition to having particular characteristics of personality each Melk (sing. of Mluk) is associated with a particular color (white, blue, red, green, black, yellow). Because the Mluk must be invoked in a certain order, the lila follows a path through the night whose road is marked in the sensory realms of sound (music, song), sight (colors), smell (incense), and movement (dance). When a Melk is invoked, the Gnawa play its corresponding music, sing its corresponding invocations, dress the "trancers" in the appropriate colors, and burn the corresponding incense.
During the Lila the Maâlem (Lead musician or Maestro) plays the guenbri (a three-stringed bass lute) and other members of the group play krakebs (metallic castanets). Generally they all dance as well. The Lila is jointly animated by a Maâlem and by Moqadma or Shuwafa (clairvoyante) who is in charge of the accessories and clothing necessary to the ritual. The clairvoyante determines the accessories and clothing as it becomes ritually necessary. Meanwhile, the Maâlem, using the guembri and by burning incense, calls the saints and the supernatural entities to present themselves in order to take possession of the followers, who devote themselves to ecstatic dancing. The Lila will continues until the goal is achieved and the trance is over and the participants have been cleansed form their afflictions.
The first part of ceremony begins with an opening that consecrates the space, the aâda ("habit" or traditional norm), during which the musicians perform a swirling acrobatic dance, playing the krakebs. Later, the guembri opens the treq "path", the strictly encoded sequence of the ritual repertoire of music, dances that guide in the ecstatic trip across the realms of the seven Mluk.