ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the relationship between music and power by pursuing main strands. The field of North African culture in which these otherwise distinct physical responses to religious music to overlap is amongst the Sufi zawia, where men perform long dhikhr rites leading to ecstatic trance states. During the most recent European colonisation, religion and language became key areas of distinction between indigenous North Africans. In music, as in many other fields of social activity, gender segregation is common in North Africa, a dynamic that creates strong social bonds within single-sex sets and palpable discursive opposition between them. The one field of North African culture in which the otherwise distinct physical responses to religious music may be said to overlap is amongst the Sufi zawia, where men perform long dhikhr rites leading to ecstatic trance states. As elsewhere in the world, new media technologies have had a considerable impact on the ways in which music is produced and consumed.
