Stambali

Public demonstration during a kharja for Mouled 2016.

Stambali or stambeli is both a music genre and a music based therapeutic possession rite practiced in parts of Tunisia, primarily by Black people of slave descent.

It combines music, dances and songs. During the music, some participants enter into a trance and embody supernatural entities, as a form of adorcism. The term more generally refers to the series of practices, of which the stambali constitutes the last stage, with a curative purpose or to ward off the evil eye. It brings together elements of West African and Maghrebi origin.

Sadok Rezgui describes this rite as a "kind of celebration in which Black Tunisians participate, where dance and instrumental sounds mingle at a frenetic pace". Some hypotheses link it to Haitian voodoo or Brazilian candomblé. However, it seems to be more directly related to Hausa practices, which are distinct from the influences of traditional Yoruba Religion and Voodun that originated voodoo and candomblé.

A similar phenomenon is known in Morocco (gnawa), Algeria (diwan), Libya (makeli), Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East (zār).

Origins

Although the meaning and origin of the word stambali are unclear, it is established that this rite originated among Black populations originating from further south in Africa, many of whom were trafficked to Tunisia as slaves. Possibly based on the Hausa Bori rite, it retains the practice of ritual possession, mediumship, and divination also found in those practices. In a syncretic approach to integration into Tunisian society, it assimilated Muslim beliefs and practices such as the popular cult of saints practiced throughout the Maghreb, which led to the creation of a pantheon composed of African spirits and Muslim saints.

The followers of the Stambali, sometimes called "bilalians", also consider Sidi Bilal, a Black slave freed by Abu Bakr and the first muezzin of Islam, as the founder of their brotherhood, a myth intended to legitimize their presence within a society dominated by Islam. A similar belief is found in some varieties of zār, such as zār tumbura (which is mainly practiced by Black non-Arabs from Sudan).

Ceremony

In the first cycle of the stambali, future adepts are identified during public rituals called tesmih. Their initiation takes place during the second cycle, through private rituals of a therapeutic nature: the arifa (seer and priestess) is then consulted to reveal the supernatural origin of the illness affecting the patient.

Guembri being played by Algerian Gnawa

The last cycle, that of the stambali itself, allows the followers to celebrate their rites in the sanctuaries of their saints. The ceremony (lila) is led by healing musicians including one or more arifa, a mâalem (master of ceremonies) playing the guembri, at certain moments the tabl (drum), and several chkacheks or qraqeb players. Initiation to the status of mâalem, which is only done by succession, involves musical apprenticeship, mastery of the guembri and sacrificial rites. The arifa, whose rank is the highest among the initiates and the equivalent of that of the mâalem, is considered to be the one who has the power to communicate with the melaks (spirits).

The invocation of the melaks is carried out by songs – interpreted by the mâalem and taken up by the troupe – and noubas played in a precise order and corresponding to each of them: "white spirits" (saints of popular Islam including Sidi Abdelkader, Sidi Mansour, Sidi Ameur, Sidi Saad and Sidi Frej), "blue spirits" (Yarima and his brother Sarki N'Gari) and "black spirits" (Sidi Marzoug and Baba Kouri). The followers can only be possessed by a melak, supposed to be at the origin of their illness, their entry into a trance allows the mâalem to confirm which spirit has "descended" to cure them. The seven families of spirits being identified by a color, the follower covers himself with a cloth of the corresponding color when entering a trance. The Sidi Ali Lasmar mausoleum of Bab Jedid, in Tunis, is one of the last places where this rite is practiced, Dar Barnou constituting the seat of one of the last Stambali brotherhoods in the country.

Mustapha Chelbi described a ceremony as follows: "The Stambali takes place in a tense atmosphere, so much so that the fat woman who just now had difficulty moving, walking, feels curiously light when she is overcome by the need to dance. She covers her face with a large scarf and rocks back and forth until she loses consciousness. Another replaces her and it is contagious, the orchestra plays even louder and only stops when an grandmother appears and dances until she faints to the loud cries of the family... A key is put in her hand... She comes to, she is kissed, because she has experienced something essential and everything becomes calm again."

Demographics and Perception

While Stambali is mainly known for being practiced by Black Tunisians, mainly Muslims, it is also practiced by Tunisian Jews, especially Jewish women. As such it has continued to be practiced by some Jewish Tunisians in Israel and other countries. These Jews are not themselves of slave descent, though when they lived in Tunisia, they frequently interacted with Black Tunisians of slave descent during Stambali rituals.

See also

• Zār
• Hamadsha
• Gnawa
• Marabout
• Adorcism
• Hausa Bori