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After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gnaoua (also known as Gnawa) music festivalÌýis set to return to MoroccoÌýthis summer, suggesting thatÌýthe country is ready to go back to normal, Moroccan media over the weekend.

Planned to be held on 3 June, aÌý"special edition" of the music festival is scheduled to tour four cities across the Moroccan kingdom and will hostÌýmore than 150 renowned Maâlems (masters of Gnaoua music) as well asÌýmusicians from fifteen countries, mainly from the African continent.

The festival is set to start in the land of Gnaoua music: Essaouira city.

Situated at the Atlantic seaside in the centre-west of Morocco, Essaouira, Mogador, was a key hub for slave trade ships coming from sub-Saharan Africa during the 11th century.

GnaouaÌýmusic, reportedly originating from the word Guinea, began as a bitter ritual by enslaved people who sang aboutÌýtheir misery and daily concerns away from their homelands.Ìý

Today, in the land where their ancestors were traded, musicians retell the history of oppression and their desires forÌýfreedom through a variety of rhythms.

In addition to playing the drums and a three-stringed bass called "the hajhouj", Maâlems play the krakebs, a two-piece instrument held together by a thread in place of the metal restraints that once bound their ancestors'Ìýhands.

Like jazz and blues, GnaouaÌýis a genre of music that permeated marginalised neighbourhoods for decades before grabbing international attention.

Over the past years, an eÌýannuallyÌýflocked to the medina (old town) of Essaouira to attend the three-day festival. Ìý

Last week, Morocco eased travel restrictions in a bid to boost the Covid-hit tourism sector ahead of the summer season.Ìý

As further compensation for the two-year-long absence, this year's festival will run for 21 days and will tour Essaouira, Marrakech, and Casablanca, concludingÌýin Rabat with a tribute to jazz music.

A variety of artists from Morocco, Algeria, Guinea, Mali, Cuba and other countries will attend the festival. Namely, the renowned Moroccan master Hamid El Kasri, the Cuban musician CimaFunk and the Malian artist Fio Varca Touré, nicknamed "The Hendrix of the Desert".

An Israeli jazz bassist Avishai Cohen is also set to attend the festival on June 23 in Rabat. Unlike other artists,Ìýthe festival's communiqué published by Moroccan mediaÌýdid not mentionÌýAvishai's nationality. His attendance has yet to triggerÌýany backlash.Ìý

A large number of Moroccans, particularly the younger generations,Ìýcontinue to protestÌýthe normalisation with Israel which began in late 2020.