Ghinnawa, meaning little songs, is a genre of brief lyric poetry composed by the Awlad Ali Bedouin of Lower Egypt, typically built from couplets of about fifteen syllables that can lengthen considerably in oral performance. The poems give voice to personal feeling, especially romantic loss, that conventional Bedouin society otherwise discourages from open expression, though happier occasions such as weddings and circumcisions produce their own variations. Anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod documented the genre among the Awlad Ali in the late 1970s, collecting more than four hundred fifty examples; women and boys compose and perform ghinnawa regularly, while men do so only occasionally, and strict conventions govern how women's compositions may be shared.
Facts
Place of OriginWestern Desert of Egypt, among the Awlad Ali Bedouin 1 Defining TraitOutlet for personal feelings not otherwise expressible in Bedouin society 1 Sources
1. Ghinnawa, Wikipedia
Lead section, first sentence
short, two line emotional lyric poems written by the Bedouins of Egypt
Lead section, second sentence
Ghinnawas typically talk of deep, personal feelings and are often an outlet for personal emotions which might not be otherwise expressible in Bedouin society.
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