Khadija Warzazia & Bnat el Houariyat
For over 25 years, multi-generational women’s percussion ensemble Bnat El Houariyat (Arabic for “the girls of Houara”) has championed Marrakech’s genres huara and chaabi, known as the roots music of Morocco. Traditionally performed at women’s gatherings, their vocal-percussion sets animate daily life with humor and rhythm. Bandleader Khadija Warzazia is both a traditionalist and innovator whose compositions are fiercely feminist and self-determined. She is also recognized as the first woman to publicly perform Gnawa in Morocco. Together, their sound blends traditional percussions with the tabsil, a women’s invention using finger cymbals to tap on a tea plate to emulate the sound of the iron castanets called karkabas.
