Music and poetry have been key elements in Saharawi culture since nomadic times, when they were efficient ways of transmitting news and stories, providing entertainment and establishing links among the tribes. After Spain abandoned Western Sahara and Morocco and Mauritania invaded the territory in 1975, music became the voice of the revolution. It played an essential role in the formation and establishment of the new Saharawi Republic and the reshaping of the society. Music, thus, was used by the Saharawis to foster social change.
The Saharawis belong to a wider area known as Trab El-Beidan (Western Sahara, Mauritania and parts of Mali, Algeria and Morocco), traditionally inhabited by the Hassani tribes. A blend of Sanhaya Berbers, West African slaves and Yemenite Arab from the Beni Hassan tribes, the Hassani share the same oral culture, language, the Hassaniya, and musical traditions. The professional hereditary musicians, the iggawen, would travel from tribe to tribe, offering their services to perform at weddings and other social gatherings with their tidinits (4-string stroked lutes played by men), ardins (calabash harps played by women) and tbals (drums normally played by women) accompanying their voices, clapping and female ululations or zagarits. These musicians were important figures in the process of cultural transmission. However, Saharawi society did not have a high opinion of them because they would only perform for money. Also, the iggawen as a caste never really existed among the northern Saharawi tribes, who would hire them from the southern tribes of the Mauritanian region.
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