Wednesday 8 November 2017

Yemen




It was said that all roads lead to Rome. It was also said that one must visit Sana’a, no matter how far it is. I was lucky enough to visit Rome several times after I had studied its history in the curriculum of ancient times in the history department at the faculty of arts in Ain Shams University.

Professor Dr. Sayed Ahmed an-Naseri, may he rest in peace, was my professor of Roman history. He was sent from the faculty of arts at Cairo University. I have no idea, until now, why professors of ancient history, in general, were scarce at Ain Shams University, and so, professors from other universities were sent to teach such discipline, like Naguib Mikhael, Abdel-Aziz Saleh, Abdel-Moniem Bakeer and Gamal Mokhtar in the history of ancient Egypt, Sayed an-Naseri in the history of Roman Empire, whereas there was a specialty for the history of the Greek and Ptolemaic dynasty with teaching professors available at Ain Shams University. Atop of them was Ibrahim Bek Noshi and came after him Mostafa Kamal Abdel-Aliem and Farouq el-Qadi.

Rome has a mythical story saying that its founder was Romulus and a grey-colored wolf breastfed him along with his twin brother Remus. As to Sana’a, I visited it so many times and I had in it, and in the rest of Yemen, friendships that can now be considered historical as they are old-in-time, also, because some of my Yemeni friends became, after their death, icons in the contemporary history of Yemen, since they actively participated in the political conflict and were martyred. Some of them were killed on the hands of the savage tyrant Ali Abdullah Saleh, and some others were assassinated while they were effectively working for reconciliation in favor of a unified free Yemen.

It is evident that Sana’a is older in time than Rome, as the ancient Yemeni civilizations were older in time than the Roman civilization; however, time was not fair to Sana’a as it was to Rome. One just needs to have a look at both of them in our present time to know how time, through people, is really mean, as Rome was subject to conflicts, attacks and invasions. The worst of them was when the savage barbaric tribes entered the capital of the empire during the last third of the fifteenth century and did what they did, to the extent that the Romans, at that time, considered what happened the end of the world. The same thing happened again during the two World Wars, in specific when Mussolini turned to fascism; however, Rome survived and regained its life, and here it is, still enjoying its charm and beauty.

As to Sana’a, the barbaric invading tribes did not attack it. It was its own tribes and the ones surrounding it that attacked it and did what the most evil demons would not dare to think of doing. Whenever I see the destruction inflicted on Yemen – which is addressed as a masculine word in the Arabic language and not a feminine one like many writers, journalists and media people do by mistake – I feel deeply sad and broken apart over the millions of children and women whose photos depict their suffering of food shortage, and others limbless after they lost their arms or legs in explosions of mines, bombs and rockets.

I got to know my Yemeni friends here in Cairo at the end of the sixties. I used to meet them in the league of Yemeni students; afterwards, we established an international and Arab student group called the league of the Nasserist Unionist Arab Students which was one of the publicly-declared covers for a secret group; that was the Arab Young Cadres or at-Talie’a al-Arabieya which I was a member of. Such group had members all over the Arab nation; west, east, north and south, also, in Europe and the two American continents.

At that time, there were talented stars of the Arab-national ideology topped by the late martyr Eissa Saif; then-student of economy and political sciences, later killed on the hands of Ali Abdullah Saleh along with several hundreds of the group members in Yemen. Having dearly loved and being close to Eissa and his colleague martyr Abdel-Salam Muqbel, I kept, for several months, signing my daily article in the Emirati newspaper of Al-Khalij under the alias “Eissa Muqbel”. The first part of the name goes for Eissa Saif; while the second is for Abdel-Salam Muqbel. In the same time, I wanted to say that justice is coming no matter what happens and salvation from tyranny is soon to come to reality, in a metaphorical rendering to prophet Eissa or Jesus who represents justice and salvation.

During that time, since I first left Egypt after being jailed and suspended from work, suffering poor financial conditions, sleeping in the public gardens and being expelled from the houses of some “fake” patriotic leaders, until a year or two ago, I did not cease to visit Yemen nor visit my Yemeni friends and fellows; martyr Garallah Omar, late Dr. Abdel-Quddoos al-Medwahi, Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi; this young man whom we were proud of his intellect and eloquence, and who is now the vice-president and foreign minister of Yemen, also, Ali Abdullah al-Daliea’e, later, I knew president Ali Naser Muhammed, ambassador Ali Mohsen and others of Yemeni figures.

In Sana’a, you get amazed by the unique Yemeni architecture erecting high without concrete bases, its vivid colors and interior design, not to mention the lunch meal served over tables with medium height higher than Tableya[1] and lower than the dining table, while the well-cooked lambs are placed next to each other. Afterwards, Khat, which I tried and liked, is served.

In such regard, I remember that day when we had lunch in the house of one of the senior Yemeni officials. We sat on the floor and stretched our hands to eat. We had the elite thinker Dr. Hassan Hanafi with us. He is a food lover, and of course, all food lovers know how delicious the lamp’s neck is. It happened that while we were eating, we were surprised to find some grass still stuck in the cooked neck of the lamb. It seems that the one who slaughtered it did not give it a chance to drink some water first.

From Sana’a to Taiz where I was sitting with my friend Abdel-Hakim Abdel-Naser in a presidential car driven by an old man with a rank of lieutenant colonel and who was one of the heroes who participated in the seventy-days Siege of Sana’a along with lieutenant general al-Amri. After visiting the palace of Imam Ahmed in Taiz – which deserves another article to talk about – the car driver told us about the incidents of “swording”; meaning to cut the necks with the sword, which was preferred by Hamidaddin family. I also heard the story of Ahmed ath-Thalaya who was martyred in the fifties.

The story says that when they placed him to cut his neck, he cursed the executioner and his Imam saying: “kill me well, you dog… tomorrow, dogs will eat both you and your master”. Then the executioner struck him with his sharp cutting sword while ath-Thalaya was pronouncing Ash-Shahada or the two declarations of faith. He pronounced the first part in the last moment, whereas his head pronounced the second while rolling over the ground.

What is happening in Yemen, in addition to being a horrible disaster by all means, is worth reflecting and explaining as the conflict in Yemen started centuries ago and is not yet over, and so, the question is: how a smart and old-in-history people like this one can continue suffering like this?

Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar




This article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on November 8, 2017.

To see the original article, go to:

#almasry_alyoum #ahmed_elgammal #Yemen




[1] Tableya (Arabic: طبلية): a low-height wooden table used for serving food.

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