The Jinn-Possession Narratives of Morocco’s Gnawa Communities

Record summary

Gnawa lila ceremonies involve music, trance, and relationships with named spirit entities or mluk. Ethnographers and musicians increasingly documented the tradition during the late twentieth century, making it a useful lead for comparing possession narratives, healing practice, performance, and changing tourist or scholarly representations. The tradition is not reducible to a claim of paranormal intrusion: participants, ritual specialists, and observers interpret it through religious, therapeutic, social, and musical frameworks. Researchers should identify the particular fieldwork publication and community rather than generalize across Morocco.