Nawal: the voice of Comoros, from forbidden guitar to Sufism

In 1985, at a wedding in Comoros, a woman grabbed a guitar on stage. An uncle pulled her by the arms, made her descend and beat her up¹. Thirty years later, she performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington². Her journey, from initial violence to conquered serenity, is a voyage that crosses the Indian Ocean.

In brief

Key dates

From forbidden guitar to international stages

Nawal grew up in the Comoros archipelago, nicknamed the Cinq parfums (Five Perfumes) or the Îles de la Lune (Moon Islands), located east of Africa³. The dzikr (lit. “invocation”, a devotional Sufi chant) resonates in the mosques, and twarab (Comorian music inspired by Algerian raï) circulates⁴. Her family counts many musicians, and her grandmother passed on the heritage of her grandfather El-Maarouf (1852-1904), an eminent Sufi marabout who preached an Islam based on love, respect and peace⁵.

At ten years old, Nawal left Comoros for France, where she grew up in the south of the country⁶. The culture shock was harsh⁷. She learned guitar on a homemade instrument. “My voice is my first instrument, above all,” she says⁸.

In 1985, back in the archipelago, Nawal wanted to prove that a woman could occupy space reserved for men⁹. She went on stage at a wedding. “My uncle said: in our family, we cannot let the first woman play guitar like a man coming from our home,” he said¹⁰. They dragged her off the stage. “Today, my uncle is proud and comes to see me at concerts,” she says¹¹.

She developed a sound that is a dialogue of cultures¹². The gambusi — a four-stringed Comorian lute, cousin of the oud — dialogues with the guitar. The daf (Persian tambourine with jingles) interweaves the rhythms of the Indian Ocean. Her music rests on a Sufi spirituality she received through family heritage¹³.

Three albums, three stages of an inner quest

Kweli (2001, label Mélodie) is the confirmation album¹⁴. Kweli, which means “truth” in Shikomori, sounds like an affirmation. Her music weaves a bridge between Comorian tradition and the influences she absorbed in France¹⁵.

Aman (2007, Nawali Productions / DOM Distribution) marks a turning point¹⁶. Aman means “peace of the soul”. Jon Pareles from the New York Times ranks it among the most significant world music albums of the year¹⁷. On this record, Nawal reduces the sound, making room for silence between tracks. “If we really want peace in the world, we must find it within ourselves,” she affirms to RFI¹⁸.

In 2007, Nawal participated in the first African Opera, the Sahel Opera, at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris¹⁹. Her song Hima appears on the Putumayo compilation Women of Africa (2004)²⁰.

Caresse de l’âme (2011, Jade / Milan) — also titled Embrace the Spirit — is her third solo album²¹. SoundRoots ranks it among its Top 20 global albums of 2011. Ten titles that merge into a single hymn the peace and human dignity²². The Chicago Reader sees in it a “powerful meditation that salutes the recent revolutions in the Middle East and the human desire for freedom and peace”²³. L’Express qualifies it as an “invitation to live the stage like a ritual”²⁴.

Major works

Legacy

Nawal paved the way for a new chapter in Comorian music²⁵. She is the first woman to perform publicly²⁶. “Today, some young women in Comoros study guitar; they do not yet play on stage but they practice and want to become professionals. I have opened the path a bit,” she says²⁷.

Beyond the stage, in 2014 she received the title of UN Goodwill Ambassador for her archipelago²⁸. The documentary Nawal and the Women of the Moon (2015, 68 minutes, directed by Éric Münch and François Kotlarski) follows her journey through Comoros, Mayotte and Zanzibar to rediscover the ancient female Sufi traditions of the Indian Ocean²⁹.

Her musical heritage is not compartmentalized³⁰. Artists like Zap Mama³¹ serve as stylistic parallels, but she cultivates a sound that is her own³². Her musicality bridges the archipelago she defends and an international audience³³.

Sources and references