By Tom Pfeiffer
Rabat, Morocco - Morocco's Gnawa, heirs to a musical and spiritual tradition brought north across the Sahara centuries ago by black slaves, are enjoying new fame as their hypnotic rhythms hook listeners across the world.
The Gnawa brotherhoods have long scraped a living on the margins of Moroccan society by offering to restore health or good fortune through seances of trance and incantation.
They symbolise the rich cultural mix of a country at the crossroads of Africa, Europe and the Arab world and many Moroccans say they are part of their national identity.
But Islamists, whose influence has grown among working-class Moroccans, have undermined their status by condemning their hedonistic lifestyle and belief in supernatural beings of African origin.
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Now, the Gnawi have found an inadvertent champion in the north African kingdom's government as it seeks to bolster Morocco's moderate Maliki strain of Islam - with its Sufi mysticism and cult of saints - to counter Islamic extremists.
The government's aim is to entrench Maliki Islam to help discredit the more hard-line Salafist and Wahhabi doctrines that originated in the Middle East.
Authorities have promoted regional Moussems, or festivals, that involve the veneration of local saints and held international events to showcase and discuss Sufi identity.
The Gnawa have indirectly benefited because they derive their spiritual authority from the same beliefs.
The government also knows the exotic and free-spirited Gnawi are a powerful draw for tourists, and it has backed an annual Gnawa and World Music festival in the windy Atlantic city of Essaouira that this year drew almost half a million visitors.
The festival has propelled mainly poor musicians into the world music major league, introducing them to large audiences from Boston to Berlin.
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