Zār at Makan, first concert

Mazaher

Ensemble from Cairo, founded in 1999 through the Egyptian Center for Culture and Art, who keep the Egyptian zār alive. Zār is a ritual healing tradition of its own, with African and Egyptian roots, in which song, dance and polyrhythmic drumming are used to make peace with the spirits; it is related to Sufism but is not the same thing. The group is led by women, among them Umm Sameh, Umm Hassan and Nour El Sabah, some of the last living practitioners of zār in Egypt.