Gnawa

= Categories =

10:42, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Oh, sorry, I didn t see this message until now. I removed those categories because they are too broad for this article (I ll do some more category-tweaking now, though). Generally, an article should not be in both a category and a subcategory. For example, placing this article in 07:13, May 1, 2005 (UTC) ::Great. I appreciate that. I did some copyediting and fixed the reference links. I am inserting a peer-review template as well. Cheers - 07:55, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

=Unclear sentences=

They heal the disease by the colors, the perfumes and fright.

**Changed to They heal the disease by the use of colors, the perfumes and fright. 20:30, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

This is the language of the blues.

**Removed and explained in the history paragraph. 20:30, May 1, 2005 (UTC) *The first paragraph under Rituals is a single really long, run-on sentence that should be a couple sentences. **Fixed 20:30, May 1, 2005 (UTC) Also, I was referring to genres like blues and jazz being uncapitalized. If the Gnawa are an ethnic group, it should be capitalized. If the gnawa are the members of the musician class among those people, it should be uncapitalized (unless it is generally capitalized by other authors). If gnawa is a genre of music, it should be uncapitalized. However, I am not sure if gnawa is ever a genre of music. If a Moroccan person (speaking English) bought a recording of this music and described it as gnawa music , would he be using gnawa in the same sense as in Moroccan music or Irish music In other words, if an ethnic Gnawa rock band formed, would that still be gnawa music -- if so, it should be capitalized because it is referring to the ethnic group; if the former, it should probably be uncapitalized, and it might be wise to split this article into 18:50, May 1, 2005 (UTC) :Thanx for the comments. I believe now that we should devide the article into two. One about Gnawas (as an ethnic group) and the other one about Gnawa music . I believe the preview and the history paragraph can make an article about Gnawas . The rest of the article will become Gnawa music .

: Gnawa music is a widely used term; it s a genre. It is widely used with capitalization. But inside the article it will be used without capitalization as for 20:25, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

= Now Africa COTF =

This is a fine article! I gave this a once-over to make some changes already suggested in the peer review above--mostly formatting stuff, but a bit of rewording for grammar and sentence clarity. I ve also removed a bit of wikilinking that struck me as excessive-- rite, ritual, and music for example, are all linked a number of times, while those articles won t really help anyone reading this one. Some questions I can t answer, though:

Gnawas are considered to be experts in the treatment of scorpion stings and psychic disorders . By who Reputable scientists or local villagers The passive voice ducks this issue, which is pretty critical--the article as it is claims that these people really can cure psychological disorders.

*History paragraph 2, same problem: It is believed that gnawas arrived in Morocco at this times . Who believes this One historian, or is there a consensus

*Theo and Svest appear to have come to a consensus on the archived Peer Review that this article should be split into Gnawa people and Gnawa musicians. I d add my voice to this; the list of Gnawa musicians is probably excessive for an article on the ethnic group. This may be a job for Svest--I m not sure I m quite qualified to divide all this up and reorganize it.

Great stuff here! I ll look forward to seeing it again at the end of the fortnight... -- 02:10, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

=Sources=

Apart from my personal experience, you are right that that part needs sourcing. I just checked now for some and found the following:

===Scorpions and healing=== *[http://www.randyweston.info/Discpage/1992splendidmastergnawa.html RandyWeston.info],

[http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1996/217/217p23.htm Verve through Polygram; Reviewed by Jenny Long],

*[http://jazzreview.com/articledetails.cfmID=330 Jazzreview.com], *[http://lfa.atu.edu/music/barber/intro/MarrakeshGnawa.htm Arkansas Tech University]. --

==Arrival==

Sources I relied on concernig the arrival of the Gnawa to Morocco (apart the history of Africa) are the following:

[http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/staticpages/index.php/gnawa.htm Worldmusiccentral.org],

[http://www.ibiblio.org/gnawastories/ ibiblio.org]. 500 years means the same thing as in the article. Indeed, there was no other major influx of Sub-Saharians to North Africa except that period in history.

-- 03:20, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

:My main concern here would be that these sources don t have much scholarly heft--at least one of them has been taken from the liner notes of CD, for example. I think, for now, it might be best to revise the healing claims to Some Gnawa claim or some such At least until we can find some scientific backing for these claims. Then we can revise this passive voice out and make things more specific. -- 03:32, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

::You are right. -- 22:33, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

::I have just sent an email to Timothy Fuson [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/data/indiv/area/idass/FUSON,Timothy.htm] asking him about some academic references. I hope he s still connected to Berkeley Univ. -- 03:30, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

=Article split=

I have just splitted the article into two. The new article is called