Stambali

Stambali or stambeli is both a music genre and a music based therapeutic possession rite practiced in parts of Tunisia, primarily by Black people of slave descent.

It combines music, dances and songs. During the music, some participants enter into a trance and embody supernatural entities, as a form of adorcism. The term more generally refers to the series of practices, of which the stambali constitutes the last stage, with a curative purpose or to ward off the evil eye. It brings together elements of West African and Maghrebi origin.

Sadok Rezgui describes this rite as a "kind of celebration in which Black Tunisians participate, where dance and instrumental sounds mingle at a frenetic pace". Some hypotheses link it to Haitian voodoo or Brazilian candomblé. However, it seems to be more directly related to Hausa practices, which are distinct from the influences of traditional Yoruba Religion and Voodun that originated voodoo and candomblé.

A similar phenomenon is known in Morocco (gnawa), Algeria (diwan), Libya (makeli), Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East (zār).