Yemeni communities in Britain and other countries of migration appear to transport a number of facets of their identity from their place and country of origin. The historical and cultural dimensions of their identity constructions seem to be rooted in their ancient custom of migration, tribal traditions, religious practices and Arabic civilization and language. But the socio-political reasons for migration, both ancient and modern are primarily those of dire economic need or political strife and even sometimes both. Theocracies, imperial invasions and secular dictatorships have all tried to impose their particular ideologies and systems on the Yemeni masses, who have continuously resisted all forms of hegemonic impositions through their tribal customs and bonds. Even in the diaspora, the tribe and the homeland remain important aspects of identity and exiled Yemenis have often organized aid and assisted resistance to support their political struggles back home. Ironically and somewhat sadly, whilst most Yemenis clearly have a great love and affinity for their homeland, the Yemen soil appears to conspire with conquering invaders and despotic rulers in uprooting and expelling them from their qurā (villages) and bilād (country). For many Yemenis carving out a living from tilling the soil is largely a fruitless endeavour. Migrations through drought and famine, occupation and strife seem to be an expectation, if not almost inevitability, for many Yemenis.
However, once in exile for whatever reason, the raison d’être for diasporic Yemenis becomes the preservation of their distinct identity in all its facets. This is largely achieved by maintaining strong physical and psychological links to the homeland through active communal ties between the exilic communities and the communities back in the Yemen. Although diaspora Yemeni communities will no doubt experience the gradual acculturation and integration of their progeny into the new societies and cultures into which they have migrated and settled, a history of generation after generation of migrations from the Yemen perhaps makes the migration process a familiar and somewhat undaunting experience. Further, in many ways migration might be said to be a cultural tradition for Yemenis, who seem neither dissipated nor displaced by the upheavals and unsettling processes of leaving one’s family, community and country.115 Today, as the new Republic of Yemen struggles for economic and political stability, ordinary Yemenis out in their fields or running their small shops, still rely on incoming wealth from migrant worker relatives. Migrations from the Yemen in modern times, are no longer part of a historic traveller/trader tradition – they are an economic necessity. The chief objective of the migrant workers from the Yemen in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries was, and is, to bring money home to pay off debts and secure landholding.116
This reality was personally observed after I was asked by one research respondent in Eccles, Greater Manchester, to forward a remittance to his relative in his village during a field trip to the Yemen. Whilst farming the land in one’s bilād or qurā was a traditional means of sustenance, nowadays purchasing land, cultivating and producing crops, all require a massive investment. Besides, the only viable and sustainable cash crop of any value is the production of qāt, a particular social habit which consumes 30% of many families’ gross weekly income. However, until the recent pro-democracy revolt that has resulted in the removal of President Salih, the unified government was able to encourage foreign financial aid with the promise of actively implementing ‘democracy’ and political pluralism in a far-too-slowly developing and progressing civil society in Yemen. Yet, while the recent emergence of the pro-democracy movement has seen hundreds of protesters killed and an assassination attempt on Salih, it appears to offer a glimmer of hope and ripples of excitement amongst the Yemeni population, even if the promise of a multiparty, democratic and united Yemen still hangs precariously in the balance.
FROM ADEN TO ‘TIGER BAY’, ‘BARBARY COAST’ AND ‘LITTLE ARABIA’
SAMUEL CHEW INFORMS us that the first recorded Englishman to travel in Yemen was John Jourdain, a ‘factor’ or, representative, of the British East India Company who, ‘leaving his ship The Ascension, at Aden, penetrated into the interior as far as Sana [sic].’1 While Jourdain crossed through the mountain highlands to the ancient city of Sana’a, the remainder of the crew of The Ascension, under the command of Alexander Sharpleigh, passed through Bāb al-Mandab and entered the Red Sea to become the first recorded English vessel in that part of the world. Jourdain then rejoined the ship at the port of Mocha from where it continued to India. This expedition took place in the spring of 1609.2 At the time Jourdain and his shipmates landed at Aden, its population was estimated to be around 60,000, consisting mostly merchants, traders and sailors. There is no further recorded contact until 1829, when the East India Company considered utilizing Aden as a coaling station to refuel the ever-increasing numbers of steam-powered merchant vessels sailing between British and Indian ports. In 1835, Captain Haines of the British East India Company opportunistically wrote:
Aden … might be the grand emporium for the export of coffee, gums, etc., as well as a channel through which the produce of India and England might be thrown into the rich provinces of Yemen and the Hadhramaut … the trade would also be open to the African coast, the distance being so trifling; from thence, gums, coffee, hides, frankincense, myrrh, would be thrown into the Aden market and the trader thereby be enabled not only to return with the produce of the Yemen, but what of might return him [sic] a good profit from the African coast.3
By 1839, Aden was virtually reduced to a fishing village with a reported population of no more than 600 people. Captain Haines’ report to the Bombay government optimistically described Aden’s admirable strategic position, its fine harbours and natural defenses, as a ‘must have’ acquisition for the East India Company, which he concluded was poorly managed by the ruling Laḥijī Sultanate. The earliest relations between Britain and the Laḥijī Sultanate were based on a series of treaties and negotiated agreements that began in 1802 when a treaty of commerce was signed. This agreement eventually led to the British exerting their power and influence over the port and surrounding areas through the eventual imposition of the British Protectorate of Aden in 1839.
Initially, British efforts to realize Aden as a colonial entrepôt for tripartite trade between Asia, Arabia and Africa were slow and ineffective and the expected trade between British merchants and the interior coffee trade districts of the Yemen did not materialize immediately. Fortunately, trade with the northerly coast of East Africa prospered, largely due to the security for merchant ships in the region as a result of the establishment of Haines’ garrison at Aden. Eventually, a growing trade between Indian and Arab merchants with Somali tribesmen was stimulated by the great annual fair held at Berbera in Somalia. In 1840, it was recorded that 300 native East African vessels and 21,000 camels were engaged in the great fair trade. However, as Berbera was abandoned during the annual monsoon season between April and October, the inland tribes moved to the African coast to prepare their huts for the expected trading vessels from Yemen, Muscat, Ras al-Khaimah, Bahrain, Porebunder and Bombay. The burgeoning British settlement at Aden soon capitalized on this trade by allowing Indian traders to build their storehouses in the port, unlike the nomads of Somalia who would not permit permanent and secure buildings at Berbera. This proved fortuitous for Aden which had, until this time, progressed little beyond being more than an offshoot of the Berbera trading centre up until the end of 1848. When Somali merchants gradually began to journey across the Gulf of Aden to conduct their business in the port, largely due to their own storage restrictions at Berbera, by 1878, the economic situation of Aden was radically changed.
From this period onwards the majority of African trade between Arabia and Asia was financed, supplied and controlled from Aden, drastically changing the fortunes of the port and the control and influence of the British