The Sound of Protest in Morocco: Nass el Ghiwane and the Years of Lead (1970s-1990s)
Episode 216
The Sound of Protest in Morocco: Nass el Ghiwane and the Years of Lead (1970s-1990s)
In her current project, Alessandra Ciucci is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Columbia University in New York, posits that in order to understand the effectiveness of the songs of Nass el Ghiwane it is critical to examine their musicopoetic assemblage with its rich web of citations and intertextual references, and to acknowledge the force of the band’s sound that Moroccans heard as “revolutionary” (thәuri) and with a “protest tone” (nәbra ḥtjajiya). She considers their songs as historical and emotional repositories of an era of profound transformation, as songs bearing witness to an era so marked by political violence and oppression that it came to be referred to as the “years of lead” and, at the same time, giving voice to collective hopes, dreams and aspirations. Ciucci is interested in the possibility that these songs offered in envisioning a different future in an oppressive reality and, just as importantly, the reasons for the musicians to choose the tools they used to capture the ears of a young generation.
Alessandra Ciucci’s research interests include: the music of Morocco, the Maghreb, the Mediterranean, sung poetry, popular music of the Arab World, music and migration and music and protest. Her first book, The Voice of the Rural: Music, Poetry and Masculinity among Migrant Moroccan Men in Umbria (Chicago University Press 2022), explores the significance and the endurance of a specific notion of the rural ('arubiya) among migrant Moroccan men in Italy. The Arabic translation of her writing on Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) and on the musicopoetic genre ‘aiṭa, was published as a collection by the Edition La Croisée des Chemins in partnership with the Académie du Royaume du Maroc. She is currently at work on a new project tentatively titled Nass el Ghiwane: Popular Music and the Sound of Protest in Morocco (1970s-1990s), in which she delves into Nass el Ghiwane, the most influential group to forge a new musicopoetic language utilizing traditional Moroccan culture as a method of decolonization that also provided a sense of contemporary authenticity. Ciucci is the recipient of a number of grants and prizes, among which the Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies (2018-19).
Alessandra Ciucci’s research interests include: the music of Morocco, the Maghreb, the Mediterranean, sung poetry, popular music of the Arab World, music and migration and music and protest. Her first book, The Voice of the Rural: Music, Poetry and Masculinity among Migrant Moroccan Men in Umbria (Chicago University Press 2022), explores the significance and the endurance of a specific notion of the rural ('arubiya) among migrant Moroccan men in Italy. The Arabic translation of her writing on Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) and on the musicopoetic genre ‘aiṭa, was published as a collection by the Edition La Croisée des Chemins in partnership with the Académie du Royaume du Maroc. She is currently at work on a new project tentatively titled Nass el Ghiwane: Popular Music and the Sound of Protest in Morocco (1970s-1990s), in which she delves into Nass el Ghiwane, the most influential group to forge a new musicopoetic language utilizing traditional Moroccan culture as a method of decolonization that also provided a sense of contemporary authenticity. Ciucci is the recipient of a number of grants and prizes, among which the Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies (2018-19).
This episode was recorded on July 14, 2023, at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).
Recorded and edited by: Abdelbaar Mounadi Idrissi, Outreach Director at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).
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This episode was recorded on July 14, 2023, at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).
Recorded and edited by: Abdelbaar Mounadi Idrissi, Outreach Director at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).
Suggested Bibliography
Achouba, Abdou, dir. (1980) 2009. Nass El Ghiwane: Taghounja. MLP Michel Levy Projects. DVD, 86 min.
Adam, André. 1968. Casablanca, essai sur la transformation de la société marocaine au contact de l’Occident. 2 vols. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
Amine, Khalid, and Marvin Carlson. 2012. The Theatres of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia: Performance Traditions in the Maghreb. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ayari, Farida. 1980. “La generation Nass el Ghiwane.” Jeune Afrique, February 1980, 62-63.
Aydoun, Ahmed. 2014. Musiques du Maroc. 2nd ed. Casablanca: La Croisée des Chemins.
Bahassou, Réda. 2021. Nass el Ghiwane: “Les Rolling Stones de l’Afrique,” Hérauts de la musique contestataire. Casablanca: Editions La Croisée des Chemins.
Baldassarre, Antonio. 2003. “Moroccan World Beat through the Media.” In Mediterranean Mosaic: Popular Music and Global Sounds, edited by Goffredo Plastino, 79-100. New York: Routledge.
Bahraoui, Hassan.2013. “Al-Ghīwān: Al- aṣl wa Al- ma-āl.” In Allal Reggoug et al. (eds.) Al-ūghinya al- Iḥtijājiya bi al- Maghrib: Mawrūt Majmū’at Nāss Al- Ghīwāne. Rabat: Publications de L’institut Universitaire.
Bentahar, Ziad. 2010. “The Visibility of African Identity in Moroccan Music: From Gnawa to Ghiwane and Back.” Wasafiri 25(1): 41-48.
Caubet, Dominique. 2004. Les mots du bled: Création contemporaine en langues maternelles. Les artistes ont la parole. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Ciucci, Alessandra. 2022. The Voice of the Rural: Music, Poetry and Masculinity among Migrant Moroccan Men in Umbria.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Danielson, Virginia. 1988. “The Arab Middle East.” Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey, by Peter Manuel, 141–60. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Dernouny, Mohammed, and Boujemâa Zoulef. 1980. “Naissance d’un chant protestataire: le groupe marocaine Nass El Ghiwane.” Peuples méditerranéens 12(1): 3-31.
Edwards, Brian T. 2005. Morocco Bound: Disorienting America’s Maghreb, from Casablanca to the Marrakech Express. Durham: Duke University Press.
Hannun, Mubarak. 2007. Ẓāhirat Nās al-Ghīwān: Tajribat taḥdīth al-ughniyya al-sha’biyya.Rabat: Dār al-Amān.
Karl, Brian. 2012. “The Coming of Americans: Moroccan Popular Music, Modernity, and Mimetic Encounters.” The Journal of North African Studies 19(3): 358-75.
El Maâdani, Selma. 2008. “La chanson de ‘Nass El Ghiwane’ quête d’une recréation de l’univers sémantique collectif. ” Imaginaire et oralié: Étude du patrimoine oral marocain, edited by El Mostafa Chadli, 65-79. Casablanca: Imprimerie Najah.
El Maanouni, Ahmed, dir. (1981) 2013. “Transes.” The Criterion Collection. DVD, 88 min.
Magidow, Melanie. 2016. “Trending the Classic: The Cultural Register of Moroccan Malhun Poetry.” The Journal of North African Studies 21(2): 310-34.
Massaia, Ahmed. 2013. Un désir de culture: Essai sur l’action Culturelle au Maroc. Casablanca: Editions La Croisée des Chemins.
Muhanna, Elias. 2003. “Folk the Kasbah: A Conversation with Omar Sayyed, leader of Nass el Ghiwane.” Transition 94: 132-79.
Najmi, Hassan. 2010. "“Aghāni al- Ghīwane: Aswātun Ḥaya min dākhili al- raḥim al- Sha’bī”." In Omar Sayed Klām al- Ghīwan. Casablanca: Najah al- Jadida, 2010.
Sadiq, Abdelhai. 2007. Nass El Ghiwane: Protest song au Maroc. Marrakech: Editions CHATR.
Sayed, Omar. Klām al- Ghīwan. Casablanca: Najah al- Jadida, 2010.
Schaefer, John. 2012. “Protest Song Marocaine.” Middle East Report 263: 26-32.
Schuyler, Philip. 1993. “A Folk Revival in Morocco.” In Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, edited by Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn A. Early, 287-293. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Simour, Lhoussain. 2016. Larbi Batma, Nass el-Ghiwane and Postcolonial Music in Morocco. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
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