The Hamadcha pilgrimage
Morocco
The Hamadcha of Zehroun
In a small village in the Zehroun Mountains of Morocco, during the days following the Moussem — the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday — thousands of pilgrims gather at the shrine of Sidi Ahmed to open a dialogue with the djinn, the spirits that inhabit them.
Within the shrine, they invoke the saint who, through his power and baraka (divine blessing), compels this encounter with the spirits. The djinn make themselves known through movement — dances, cries, and shouts that mark the passage between the visible and the unseen. The Hamadcha musicians accompany this exchange, guiding it through rhythm and sound.
At times, the rituals take on darker forms — sacrifices, trances, moments of rupture — yet within this collective act something deeper
seems to unfold: a healing of the human wound that lies beneath.
