Commodification of the Festival:
The biggest issue currently at hand is the commodification of the “festive scared,“ a term coined by John Schaefer. According to him, the “festive sacred” is the transnational capitalization of the sacred” (Schaefer 2017, 70). The popularity of Gnawa music being made for international consumption and the festival held in Morocco is a prime example of this commodification. Because “Moroccan Gnawa performance has always included monetary exchange: spiritual healing by expert musician practitioners (“masters”) in exchange for food, sacrifice, monetary donations, and other gifts from the possessed, offered at the behest of and in honor of their possessing spirits” (Mills 2014, 92), the festival acts as a money pit for individuals looking to profit from the “festive sacred.” Some performances are prepaid for by outside entities enabling festival goers to experience their first “lilas” for free. While others may wait until night falls to pay for the legitimate lilas. The payment is viewed as a “spiritual investment” (Schaefer 2015, 173) which immediately goes to the m’allim, or master, and his troupe who sing and perform the call-and-response chants that are memorized and recited. It is also a chance for the troupe to showcase themselves and land other tours and events to perform at so it is important that every performance be catered to the diverse attendees. The troupes use the commodification of their performances to “subsidize their travel to meet and to form and maintain friendships [as] gathering of more than two or three m’allims from distant cities has been very expensive and thus rare prior to 1995” (Schaefer 2017, 73). Therefore, not all repercussions are negative. However, as time goes on, the practice of “proper” lilas has become increasingly threatened by “private” lilas where “exclusive attended, graded payments for the troupe members (a large share to the m’allim and to the principal performers) and the expectation of payment by all attendees (‘pay to play’)” (Schaefer 2015, 177) has threatened to ruin traditional Gnawa practices and thus make events such as the Gnawa festival one of the last “free” places to view the ceremonies and connected music. While it may feel like doom and gloom, there are others who continue to practice the more generous structure of lilas to include the youngest generation learning from their local m’allim and starting their own troupes.
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