Who are the Gnaoua people?

The Gnaoua — you'll also see it spelled Gnawa — are an Afro-Moroccan community whose roots trace back to sub-Saharan West Africa, with a history bound up in centuries of trans-Saharan movement and the slave trade. Over generations they wove their West African heritage together with Moroccan Islam and Sufi mysticism into something entirely their own. Today "Gnaoua" refers both to this community and, above all, to their extraordinary music and the spiritual brotherhood that carries it. UNESCO has recognised Gnaoua culture for its global significance, and rightly so.

Their music is unlike anything else in Morocco. At its heart is the guembri (also called sintir) — a three-stringed bass lute with a deep, thrumming, almost electric pulse — joined by the qraqeb, heavy iron castanets that clash out a relentless, rolling rhythm, and big drums. Layered with call-and-response chanting, it builds into long, hypnotic, trance-inducing pieces. Traditionally this music isn't entertainment at all but the soundtrack to the lila, an all-night healing and spiritual ceremony where, through music, incense and colour, participants seek to enter trance and connect with spirits for healing.

What thrills me is how alive this tradition is, and how accessible it's become to visitors without losing its soul. The great showcase is the Gnaoua World Music Festival in Essaouira each June — a huge, joyous, free-spirited event where Gnaoua maâlems (master musicians) jam with jazz, blues and world artists from across the globe, and the whole windswept town pulses with that guembri bassline. Essaouira is the spiritual home of Gnaoua music, and even outside the festival you'll hear it in its squares, cafés and riads.

For travellers, encountering the Gnaoua is one of the most moving cultural experiences Morocco offers, and I love arranging it — an evening of live Gnaoua music, a visit during the Essaouira festival, or simply understanding what you're hearing when those iron castanets start up in a Marrakech square. Approach it with respect: at its core this is sacred, healing music, not just a colourful show. Listen for the guembri's pulse, watch the dancers spin into trance, and you'll feel why this Afro-Moroccan heritage is treasured worldwide.