البحيري (Al-Buhairi)

Aita is a rural Moroccan Bedouin style of Arabic folk music centered on powerful, piercing vocal lines sung in Moroccan Arabic (Darija) by women known as shikhat, typically accompanied by small male ensembles. The core sound blends scratchy, expressive bowed violin (kamanja) with rollicking frame-drums (bendir), clay goblet or small handheld drums (taʿrija), and festival bass drum (tbel). Texts use locally rooted, orally transmitted poetry (zajal/malḥun-like couplets) that alternate between praise, satire, love laments, and tribal memory. The music is celebrated at weddings and rural festivities, especially around Safi and the Chaouia–Doukkala–Abda plains, and today it is showcased at the Aita Festival in Safi. Stylistically, Aita features call-and-response between a lead shikha and her chorus, melismatic lines, robust ululations, and heterophonic ensemble textures, usually set to buoyant 6/8 or driving 2/4 grooves that invite dancing.