Ghinnawa
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Ghinnawas (literally "little songs") are short, two line emotional
Ghinnawa is a form of
Themes
Ghinnawas usually have sad themes - typically being the lament of lost love, unless sung at celebrations like a circumcision or a wedding. Ghinnawas are sung by women, boys and also on rare occasions by men.[3] Ghinnawa semantics are well-defined only in context, because of their personal nature. Contents of ghinnawas are considered personal, even sensitive to the extent that Lila Abu Lughod was warned "never to reveal any women's poems to men".[4]
Social expression
The Awlad Ali do not have a strong history of public displays of emotion. Modesty or deference and boasting or anger are typically the most commonly expressed public emotion. Most other forms of expression take place through ghinnawas.[1]
Delivery and structure
Ghinnawas may be written down, which is often the case for intergender communication, but can be spoken as substitute to normal conversation, or sung. The structure of the ghinnawa is very different in written and oral forms.
Structurally, ghinnawas are approximately 15-
56789
the oral form unspools into 16 lines as follows:
78
78
789
78
6789
78
78
6789
78
78
781
1234
78
78
56
56789
Each ghinnawa typically has many variations, and may even be sung with minor variations in a single singing.[1]
External links
- Recorded ghinnawas at the Lawrence University website
Notes
- ^ a b c d Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, by Lila Abu-Lugodh, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1986
- ^ Between segmentation and desegmentation: Sound expressions among the Berbers in the Sous region (Southwestern Morocco), by Horiuchi Masaki, Cultures Sonores d'Afrique (ed. J. Kawada), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, 1997
- ^ The Ghinnawa: How Bedouin Women's' Poetry Supplements Social Expression by Martha Blake
- New York Times, February 15, 1987