Morocco and trans ceremonies Gnawa

Morocco 2001: I am a Special Reporter's Assistant...we are leaving for one month to work on a topic that had been sold to the magazine Grands Reportages and for which I am to write up the Useful Information pages. The theme that had originally been chosen was the "The Blue of Chefchaouen", but when we were in Riff, surrounded by a sea of lime, we changed our minds and our destination. We decided to go to Essaouira to see the Ganouas Festival which drew us like a magnet. This city has been opened up to the world thanks to Tabal's almost shamanic-like paintings which create a mythology with one small dot after another and by the visits of many artists from the 1970s, among whom Orson Wells and Jimmy Hendrix. There is a sense of freedom blowing through it like the wind. Even today I can still recall its unforgettable port where wrecked ships come to be made anew before setting out to sea once again. I can hear the cries of the early morning auctions and see the brightness of the Atlantic which contrasted wonderfully with cast shadows. I took photos to the rhythm of numerous seagulls circling above me. We had already passed through the other famous port of Tanger, the intricate medinas of Larache, Tétouan, the beaches of Oualidia since our arrival but we finally chose to focus on Gnawa Sufism. This is a fusion of Islam and Black African traditions which often come from the Bambara culture in Mali or from Sudan. They were brought and left behind by Sudanese workers who had come to work in the sugar factories located in this region. We were invited to attend evening trances which took as from Derdeba to Derdeba, from Lila to Lila. When the time for Kuyou came there were sword dances one after another and trance after trance to the sound of the guembri string instruments and the crakeb metal rattles. There were other spellbinding chants until it was time to invoke the spirit of Lala Mira at dawn with the yellow scarf that characterizes this final moment. The trance ceremonies are meant to be therapeutic and the energy there is extraordinary.

I presented this work for the first time in 2003 and it was very much appreciated. It figured in the Off des Chroniques Nomades d'Honfleur, a travel and adventure festival which was held in the old salt barns. It was shown again in Touraine at Germain Photo and at the Les Bons Enfants gallery and also exhibited at the Municipal Cultural Center of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. The director of the center, Alain Werner, wrote "Sandra Daveau is fully cognizant of what she observes in the world but is at the same time filled with wonder at what she sees. I thank him for these words because they express exactly the state that I was in after returning from this immersion in our neighboring country, whose traditions are so beautiful and so different from ours.

Note that this work was widely reported by the press: in Ouest France and then in a wonderful radio program on RFI to which I was invited called "Cahiers Nomades", prepared and realised by Zora Zoti, Didier Bleu and Véronique Fenek.