B'NET HOUARIYAT

(The Daughters of the Houara)




Five women from the region of Marrakech, singing and dancing to the rhythm of their drums, performing traditional music of their country, the Houara (region between Taroudant and Tiznìt), of the Hammada (plain of the Dra`a), joined with berber dances and urban repertoires like the`Aità (female seductive appeal) and the Cha`abi, popular style that originated the Raï music.

The image of women as represented by the music of B’net Houariyat reflects the multiple facets of Islam on a daily life and the female condition, above and beyond the stereotypes, with emotion, humour and energy.

Among the themes of their songs: the exaltation of love and beauty; the cry of the young woman that refuses the combined marriage with a rich old man; the derision of the man that has more wives and that works for maintain them; the ritual dance of the woman possessed by her spirits; the incitement to the Moroccan football team in occasion of the World Cup 1998; the critique of Bob Marley and the pop’s fanaticism.

The group has played for the first time out of the traditional context the 25th July 1995, in Milan, at the Festival Notti di San Lorenzo. B'net Houariyat have then performed at the Festival de la Méditerranée of Marseille, at the Festival du Jazz of Amiens, at the Festival Mundial of Tilburg, at the Festival del Mediterraneo of Genova, at Suoni dal Mondo of Bologna, at the Festival du Mouvement International des Musiques Innovatrices of Arles, at Officina Mediterraneo of Palermo, at Musica dei Popoli of Firenze, at Sons d’Hiver of Paris, at the WOMAD of Reading, at the Festival d’Autunno of Roma, at the MASA of Abidjan, at FrancoFolies of Montréal, at the Houston International Festival, to the Jazz & Heritage Festival of New Orleans and to the International Festival of Louisiana of Lafayette, performing also in Paris (Institut du Monde Arabe), Roma (Giardini della Filarmonica), Torino (Teatro Regio), Frankfurt (Palmengarten), Amsterdam, Bruxelles, Lyon, Lisboa, Liège, Rotterdam, Utrech, Lille.

B'net Houariyat have published the following Compact Disc:

Poèmes d’Amour des Femmes du Sud Marocain (ALCD 126, Al Sur/ Media7, Nanterre 1994);

Voix des femmes de Marrakech (ALCD 207, Al Sur/ Media7, Nanterre 1996);

Voices of Marrakech (MRF Records-Blue Line, Roma 1997);

They have participated to the compilation Football Africa (Real World 1998 WSCD 105), to Maghreb & Friends, with Nguyên Lê and Karim Zyad (Act Music 1998 WDR 9261-2), to Peter Gabriel’s Up (Real World, forthcoming);  forthcoming a CD for Womad Select/Real World.

http://homepages.tesco.net/~david.pye/up.htm
The Making of Peter Gabriel's U


"Les cinq femmes de B'net Houariyat sont un miraculeux receptacle. De leurs percussions et chants immémoriaux, puisés aux sources de l’Afrique Noire et de l’Arabie, on tire les constructions rythmiques et harmoniques les plus modernes. C'est pourtant d'un rite primitif et secret qu'il s'agit, enfoui dans un village à la lisière d'un desert de sable". (Le Monde, 27-7-1997)

" B'Net Houariyat from Marocco were a revelation with their Berber songs and percussion". (Nigel Williamson, The Times, 28-7-1998)

" Best of all were B'Net Houariyat, five middle-aged Berber women who entranced an audience of thousands with nothing more than percussion and the interweaving of their harsh but exhilarating voices." (Mark Hudson, The Daily Telegraph, 28-7-1998)


B'net Houariyat:

Zahra Bani: voice, ta`arija, tubsil

Khadija Haliba: voice, dance, ta`arija, bendìr

Malika Rahmi: voice, dance, tara

Saïda Madrani: voice, d`awd`a

Halima Zeiter: voice, dance, naqqùs, triyàr


Technical requirements: stage m.6 x 7 (minimum) with a dais of m.2 x 1 x 0.60 recovered by carpets; 5 microphones type Shure SM58 for the voices, 3 microphones for the percussions, 2/4 panoramic microphones; 4/6 monitors; sound-check and lights 2 hours before the show; catering in the dressing-room; dinner after the concert-show.



e-mail:sidimimoun@gnawa.net



"Their words come from far and remain suspended in the air longer than those of common mortals"
(Elias Canetti, Voices of Marrakech)


My encounter with the music of the Houara women goes back to the early nineties, during a Lila (a Gnawa nocturne ritual) celebrated in Tamesloht, in the Marrakech region. The Houariyat women were invited by the Gnawa women to warm up the festivities before the ecstatic ritual dances took place. Maybe due to the polirythmic structure, the vocal-instrumental timbre and the dynamics releasing physical energy, the Houara music has a contagious effect, a particular effervescence, that is practised with moroccan sufism, even beyond the ritual context. All musical practices, in Morocco, are of intrinsic religious nature; this mixture of sacred and profane, to some of us, could seem matchless, instead, this is normally accepted by the traditional culture.

My curiosity and consequent field-research was first addressed to the Houara tribe territorial settlements in the regions of Ouarzazate, Taroudant and Ouled Teima; but is in Marrakech that the situation appeared more stimulating. Since years, in this town, are settled and reside in an urban context many women coming from the Houara and other southern regions of Morocco. These women have regular music activities, and receive compensations, playing at the homes for feasts and celebrations. The repertory that links the women is handed down by the oral tradition, their groups form and dissolve according to the affinities and to the situations.

This is how a research action began and has rapidly extended over the moroccan borders: the recent phenomen of general interest towards the world-music, as opened an unexpected outlook on to the world, permitting some of these women to travel and perform in various European countries. Something has changed of course: at the beginning the traditional formation was open to the alternation of roles, it has now progressively become more stable and selective tending to create a permanent group. The traditional repertory of the Houara has opened out to other genre of popular moroccan music, such as the Houzi, the Cha`abi and the Aita, played with the duzan, set of percussion instruments, specially performed in the ferda’s ("fire arms") rythmic explosions.


What seems unchanged, is the desire to sing, giving a sense to one’s existence and expressing the fantastic female imaginary, throught the sacred and the profane, through the sorrow of an ending love and the joy of a new one, in the everyday life.


Antonio Baldassarre