| Duration | 135 min |
| Part of | Gnawa Festival |
A magical ceremony with music and dance
Let go of everything, focus on the rhythms and connect with each other and the spiritual. That, in a nutshell, is a Lila. We’re not referring to the colour, but an enchanting ceremony that belongs to the culture of Gnawa. Experience it yourself in Korzo, during a magical Lila night with Maâlem Reda Stitou.
A Lila is a ceremony from Gnawa culture that celebrates the deep spiritual and cultural heritage of the Moroccan community. A Maâlem - master of Gnawa music, with this evening Moroccan-Belgian Maâlem Reda Stitou - leads this ritual and plays the guembri (a traditional, lute-like bass) and the qraqebs (metal castanets) with a group of musicians to put the audience into a trance. A trance that in Gnawa culture serves as a spiritual bridge to communicate with and pay homage to holy spirits.
The heart of the Lila is to promote universal love and connection, through music and dance. So that people open up to each other and make deeper connections. A Lila is an unforgettable experience that celebrates the essence of human connection and cultural wisdom.
It was always crystal clear that Reda Stitou (Tanger, 1970) would become a great Gnawa musician: his father Abdelouahid is a well-known maâlem and his grandmother’s house served as the hangout for a lot of great Gnawa-musicians from Tanger. Reda picked up the qraqebs at the age of 10 and never let them go. He made Gnawa-music in his father's Marsaoui style, learning from well-known Gnawa pioneers such as Zefzef, Brahim Baha, Abdelah El Gord and Hamid Kasri. A move to Belgium broadened his musical palette; Reda built his own Gnawa community in Brussels and mixes traditional Gnawa rhythms with other genres.
Gnawa are the descendants of black enslaved people in Morocco, where they have formed their own Sufi order, the city of Essaouira being the center. Their music is hypnotizing, inciting and is deeply rooted in the history of when this population was held as slaves. It revolves around storytelling about their suffering. Traditionally the music is only played by men, but In Morocco times are changing too. Not only does Asmaa Hamzaoui play the guembri (a kind of bass), her whole group consists of women, which is quite unique.
Korzo Zaal