could accompany the bier, for his grandsons could but his sons could not, meant that he was buried instead in the cemetery of al-Baqī˓ in the Prophet’s city of Madīnah.100
For a traditional Arab society like that of the Yemen, tribal belonging offers a cultural continuity: a history and aṡl (literally, ‘origin’), and provides an authenticity and rooting to a place and a people.101 The structures of tribal societies are heterogeneous, traditional and pre-modern and the particular size and configuration varies from region to region, often determined by the historical socio-politics of the local people. In the Yemen, a tribe may be subdivided into many divisions, each ranging from a few thousand to a grouping as small as a hundred members.102 Historically, the internal structures of tribes would derive ancestrally from the siblings of one family and its origins are geographically ‘fixed’ whereas individual men and families connected to the tribe need not be.103 Tribesmen, regardless of their subdivisions, will usually locate themselves as descendants of ‘one forefather’ (˓min jadd wāḥid’). In this sense, all subgroups belonging to a tribe are ‘brothers’ to each other in the same way that they are all ‘sons’ of one tribal originator.104 Whilst tribal nomenclature has local variations for a number of reasons, each tribe also further identifies itself in contradistinction from other tribes, despite sharing the same dominant culture, customs and religious beliefs. Paul Dresch offers an informative insight and explanation into the contradistinction of tribal identity when he says,
No village, section, or tribe by itself can properly be said to be a ‘moral’ community – none has sense without its opposite numbers; but the tribes none the less form together a society in that all are encompassed in the same values.105
This is because the relevance and unifying factors in tribal selfidentification are based, primarily, on structural relations within a particular ‘historical’ context and social setting. ‘History’ in the pre-modern tribal sense can often include mythological and folkloric elements, which does not necessarily conform to a ‘time and space’ or ‘factually accurate’ understanding of history commonly held in contemporary or modern societies.
Patriachally constructed, Yemeni tribes share a sense of family honour, or sharaf, and within their concept of honour both the tribe, as a collective group, and the individual, as a tribal member, uphold the sense of honour and are bound by their shared bonds to protect and preserve tribal honour. For the individual, protecting one’s personal dignity whilst simultaneously honouring the tribe is known as wajh, or ‘keeping face’ and to do otherwise is ˓ayb, or shameful.106 In the collective context, it is the tribal shaykh who ‘keeps face’ on behalf of the tribesmen. The shaykh usually belongs to an ‘original family’ (bayt aṡlī) who through his family lineage has the honour of representing the tribe at a given period of time, although there is no set law making his leadership a permanent rule. Dresch comments, ‘anyone of the shaykhly family may usually, in practice as well as theory, be chosen shaykh.’107 Generally speaking, the shaykh acts as an intra-tribal reconciler and unifier and an intertribal representative and mediator. Through the respect and power invested in him by the tribe, the shaykh helps to maintain cohesion between community (tribe) and society (waṭan) via what Dresch describes as a ‘structure of containment’ – a system of codified arbitration.108
Within the ancient tribal customs and laws, collectively known as ˓urf al-qabā’il, the individual can expect the protection and support of the tribe, be it moral, spiritual, political, financial or otherwise, providing he has not contravened any customary laws, compromising both wajh and sharaf. The tribal ˓urf provides a system by which men recognize a collective set of rules that allows them to act in concert such as resolving how they may financially contribute to a mutual fund, or levy collective payments, or participate in cultivation partnerships.109 Protecting both property (private and tribal lands and borders) and people (tribal kinsmen/women) is a priority and primary function of the tribe. Whenever the two are violated by an outsider then a recompense, or fidyah, mutually agreed by tribal leaders is paid. Through a detailed and often orally-transmitted system of tribal laws, the violation, protection, sale, travel, occupation and inheritance of land and family rights are codified through the ˓urf. But understanding tribal laws is complex and often compounded by local geo-cultural nuances as Dresch’s detailed study highlights. For example, he notes,
Sometimes one finds a killing between sections or tribes settled by a change of their common border, so that the victim’s tribe acquires some of the other tribe’s faysh [grazing ‘wasteland’] or non-arable land; this is one of the few exceptions to the rule of border’s explicit fixity.110
Dresch’s research also details how methods for collective payments to cover fidyah, and even divisions of wealth, differ from tribe to tribe.111 He also argues that without the shaykh and the symbolic office that he represents, ‘there is no assurance that ties between equals will be any more than episodes in mutual contradiction.’112 But even with the social structure of the tribe, which places the wajh of the shaykh vicariously and emblematically in front of other tribes, ‘episodes in mutual contradiction’ still frequently recur and often involve the shaykhs themselves.113 Dresch observes that the marked distinctions and nuanced micro-cultures of individual tribes provide the most fascinating ethnographic element of this ancient culture. A society in which ‘they are all equal and opposite, not in numbers or size, but as they divide up the moral world, the terms which all tribes share.’114
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
