ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the dynamics of the Maguzawa song suite of the diwan ritual. This group of songs is notable for being a “non-Muslim” song suite that invokes “animist” sensibilities. Algerian diwan, is a nocturnal Afro-Maghrebi ritual belonging to one of many popular Islamic Sufi orders in North Africa, the Bilaliyya. Diwan gradually coalesced and developed over hundreds of years by displaced sub-Saharan Africans from various ethnolinguistic group during the height of the trans-Saharan slave trade, peaking in the mid- to late nineteenth century. While many ethnolinguistic origins are traceable in diwan, it was most heavily influenced by the Hausa bori “possession” ceremony of northern Nigeria. Regarding patterned feelings, each diwan troupe also has the accumulated memory of past rituals every time a particular song has been played. ‘Ulad diwan attend rituals for the duration of their lives – often dozens a year – usually from childhood until death.
