Cynthia J. Becker is associate professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Boston University. She is author of Amazigh Arts in Morocco: Women Shaping Berber Identity. Her writing has been published in many journals and edited volumes, including Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa.
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Note on Transcription and Transliteration
Introduction: Becoming Gnawa
1. From Enslavement to Gnawa: Historical Postcards and the Construction of
Gnawa Identity
2. Black Women, Photographic Representation, and Female Agency
3. Fraja Performances: Geo-Locating Gnawa Ceremonies in the Sudan
4. Spirits in the Night: Blackness, Authenticity, and Potency in a Gnawa
Lila
5. Marketing Gnawa Authenticity: The Shrine of Bilal and Hats of the
Bambara
6. The Gnawa Guinbri: From Concealment to Exhibition
Conclusion: Utopian Visions and Trans-Saharan Realities
Appendix: Gnawa Spiritual Repertoire
Notes
Bibliography
Index
