AA/Manouba (Tunisia)/ Hend Abdessamad
The smell of “Bkhour”, this Tunisian incense in perfumed grains, is felt in the four corners of the religious building of Sidi Ali Hattab, in the plain of Mornaguia, located in the governorate of Manouba (north-western suburb of Tunisia).
A rather special atmosphere certainly, but as they say: The real ones know. They knew that through this music, they were going to let go, they were going to get rid of all this negative energy that weighed so much. An attraction which, according to them, possessed them for centuries. They lived under the racial sway of always being controlled. Through this rite, Stambali lovers express themselves to feel better about themselves.
“L’Aarifa”, as the centerpiece of the show is called, the woman who manages the emotion of people who enter a trance under the effect of the musical rhythm of the “Gombri” (three-stringed instrument) and the “Chkacheks” (a kind of castanets). Sabrine, who adapts the character of “Chouchena”, servant, but also the hidden wife of the Bey, explains in an interview granted to the Anadolu Agency (AA): “Stambali is a spiritual tradition of sub-Saharan African origin, practiced before by ajams and nomads, where everyone can tell their story through dance, song and music (…) We attribute the name of Nouba to the mini show that embodies the story of a character”.
“Each actor who animates the Stambali has a mission, I am the Aarifa who physically expresses the stories of this rite, the Yenna masters the Gombri, there are the people who play the Chkacheks and there is also the Kachaka”, specifies Sabrina.
Lotfi Kriden, the young man who fingers the three-stringed instrument, points out that “the person who plays the Gombri is called the Yenna, this is my role in the performance of the Stambali, which is spiritual music from the soul, practiced in the past by slaves, it appeared in Tunisia before the Malouf”.
“This music reflects a whole section of the suffering of blacks in Tunisia, telling the story of the fisherman, the blacksmith, the hairdresser adapted by Aarifa in the form of choreography”, notes the “Yenna”.
“The Aarifa” informs AA of the different ethnic groups that have practiced the Stambali rite: “the spiritual communication between the Yenna and the Aarifa makes it possible to identify the membership of the person who has entered a trance (…) In fact , there are several tribes, such as the “Bahria”, the “Moulouk”, the “Chwachna”, the “Somran”, whose members have endured the worst tortures against a background of racism. It is in their honor and to commemorate their history that we practice this rite”.
In all virtuosity, Lotfi plays “Gombri”, to the sound of Chkacheks and songs, in the midst of women who let themselves go dancing to the rhythm of Stambali, letting their bodies express themselves freely.
“The Stambali, today, is inspired by Sufism, with songs in praise of the prophet and the marabouts,” says Lotfi.
Confirming Lotfi’s words, Sabrine, dressed in her white Jebba and her green shawl, specifies: “Any music containing spirituality and songs in praise of God and the marabouts, can have a link with the Stambali, such as Sufism or again the Hadra”.
Tunisia includes several musical practices between rite and Sufi music, in the form of collective supererogatory rituals which are generally celebrated during special Islamic holidays or during rites of passage, such as the Hadra, the Aissaouia or the Soulamia.
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To the tempo of “Gombri” and “Chkacheks”…The spiritual rite of Stambali in Tunisia