So I wanted to get this down while the details are fresh. I don’t want to seem like I’m grossly exaggerating, or being weird and stereotypical, or like I’m looking at people like subjects, I’m not, this was one occasion tonight that I just was thrown for a loop in terms of normal Morocco life.
Getting home from the Riad today, I started to hear drumming from a block away. As I got closer I figured out it was my building, then my apartment. My host family had people over in the afternoon, but I had no idea it would be an all-day-all-night affair. The music was LOUD, big, leather drawn drum, an oud (plugged into an amp), and wood clappers. The music involved all the instruments, especially the drum, which were all played by professionals I had never seen before, but who were in colorful (I suppose traditional/celebratory?) outfits. The music was basically a short cycle of lyrics and sound, and when the cycle would repeat, it would get louder, and louder. It created a very weird, hypnotic feel.
Most incredible, was the dancing. After I had been around for a while and it was clear they were beginning a new, big song, the young women and my host mother, who is in her mid-30s, lined up right on top of the players. Three wide and about 3-4 deep. They were mostly the young, from a little younger than me, up to late 20s, with my host mother and one other exception. All were without hejab except for one. The dancing started with the women on the floor on their knees flat on the ground and whipping their heads with the rhythm forward and to the backright/left. As the music got louder, they started standing up, stomping their feet and whipping everything from the waist up the same way. The women not dancing, and even some of the men were at times restraining them, because it seemed clear they weren’t in control of their bodies. Their arms would move equally erratically, and the whole thing looked pretty violent, especially since all the lights were shut off in the house. The other women just tried to keep them a safe distance away from each other and from hurting themselves, at times tried to pull them to sit down, which they would always resist. The stomping and whipping continued for about 10 minutes, the music was fast, really fast to the point that any dancing to keep up would have been exhausting, never mind dancing like this. At some point the carpet was rolled up and water splashed on the floor, and everyone made and effort to stomp in the water, then the water was mopped away as everyone moved. Eventually some started to drop, they would be given milk to freshen them, and would soon, at the next verse or sooner, be back at it, this time on the ground. All attention and focused remained on the music, like it was supernatural, and at some point an impromptu (seeming, I don’t know) chant of Allah when through, to rhythm. The young girls kept at it, and it seemed like everyone was about to burst when the grandfather, my host mother’s father, told the musician to take a break, which he did. The music died down for a while, and all the dancers literally collapsed, basically unconscious and were cared for by the family. After really only a minute the music started again, slowly getting louder until it was right back. This time only the really strong ones went back at it, and stayed at it. At the end, it even looked like the musicians were concerned with the amount of yelling and screaming and concern for the dancers, and ended the song in an orderly fashion. The lights came back on and everyone was nursed back to health. Everyone started smiling, and in a flash, everything was normal again. People started cleaning up, saying goodbye, nothing unusual. My host mother is completely normal now, although dressed in black.
The reason I was given by my host father, over the music, was that the party was connected to henna, the tattoo, and happened once a hear, and that everyone was normal. I’m going to check up on that again, try to understand a better explanation.
Update:
Turns out the dancing last night was performed like it was because believed by the participants that the jinns who live in them like the music, and the dancing was like it was because it was the jinns, or spirits, demons, angels, etc. expressing their pleasure. It only is performed once a year and the connection to the henna is that the jinns also like the henna. This is from a professor at the institute.
Also, the music is called Gnawa and has to do with more the subsaharan roots in Morocco than anything Arab or Islamic. Any links you find of that is what the music sounded like, but the dancing, I've yet to find a video. The professor told me I should have taken video and that no one would have cared. Too bad.
