RAINBOW OF TRANCE captures the daily life and healing rites of Morocco’s Gnawa peoples as well as random sites around the culture. The images were created using black and white analog and digital photography between 2011–2014. I was first invited to Morocco to document the home coming of New York-based Gnawa musician Hassan Hakmoun. Through Hassan, I was introduced to life in Marrakech, to friends in cities around the country as well as important Gnawa Maalams (knower/master), including Mustapha Bakbou of Marrakech, Mahmoud Guinea of Essaouira and Abdelkadr Amlil of Rabat. 

Born of a west African population who were trafficked north during the trans-Saharan trade of the Middle Ages, Morocco’s Gnawa have created multidisciplinary mystical ensembles whose haunting ceremonies transform anyone present through sound, scent and color. Gnawa designates an ethnic/cultural grouping, and a Sufi-based spiritual order as well as musical genre. Gnawa performance focuses on healing and self-exploration through a system of music and dance based on the intrinsic energy of specific colors – white, black, blue, purple, red, green and yellow.  These seven colors manifest in different aspects of nature and are also connected with specific kinds of incense, an intrinsic element of Gnawa healing nights.  Another important aspect of Gnawa spirituality is trance, the essence of healing in their system.

The lila derdeba (night rights of possession) ceremonies are celebrated using the Ganga drum (double headed drum found throughout the Caribbean, and west and north Africa) and the karkaba (metal castanets) mainly, whereas the urban Gnawa also play the sintir, a three stringed bass lute related to the Bamana ngoni (Mali), Wolof xalam (Senegal), and the banjo. Gnawa music embodies the compassion of the blues and the social commentary of rap, which is founded on love and concern for fellow humans and their state.  While west Africa’s Bambara, Hausa, and Fulani peoples were forced west to the Americas, they also went north to Morocco where they created Gnawa culture.  Gnawa music is Morocco’s equivalent to the blues and rumba.  In 2019, UNESCO acknowledged Gnawa music by inclusion on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.