Gnawa

English

Etymology

From Arabic غَنَاوَة (ḡanāwa). The name appears to originate from the Saharan Berber dialect word aguinaw (or agenaou) (Arabic أݣناو), meaning black (men), perhaps itself derived from the name of a city significant in the 11th century, in what is now western Mali, called Gana, in Arabic Ghana or Jenna and in Portuguese and later French Guinea or Jenné.

Noun

Gnawa (plural Gnawas or Gnawa)

1. Any member of an ethnic group and Sufi religious order in Morocco.

Alternative forms

• Gnaoua

Anagrams

• wanga