ABSTRACT
The population consists principally of Caucasoid Arabs and Berbers and of negroid Africans known in the Maghrib as Gnawa. The character that distinguishes North Africa from the Arabic-speaking Muslim Near East arises in large measure from its Berber subculture. The concept of saints as mediators between divinity and humanity, and as sources of good health and fortune, became a feature of Islamic worship in western North Africa after 1200. The Gnawa play a gumbri, a three-stringed plucked lute, known by different names to black musicians throughout North and West Africa. Vocal music, except when used for dancing, functions primarily as a vehicle for poetry, a highly developed and esteemed art in North Africa. The recording industry, present in North Africa as early as 1910, promoted widespread dissemination of regional and foreign styles. The rways, itinerant musicians from southern Morocco, wander throughout the country performing an acculturated music derived from Arab-Andalusian, European, Arab-popular, and West African styles.
