A Lost Year in Yemen

Yemeni poet Abd al-Aziz al-Maqalih has authored more than 13 volumes of poetry and more than 30 other works of literature and criticism. He serves as cultural advisor to Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh.

FOREIGN POLICY: What books are Yemenis reading?

FOREIGN POLICY: What books are Yemenis reading?

Abd al-Aziz al-Maqalih: The political novel Amrikanli, by Egyptian author Sonallah Ibrahim, is very popular. Published before the invasion of Iraq, it criticizes the United States for its prewar sanctions. The novel uses the genocide of the American Indians as a metaphor, saying that the United States has spilled over its borders and that now the whole world is like American Indian territory, vulnerable to attack. Other favorites are Egyptian author Mohamed Heikal’s The American Empire and the Raid on Iraq, which offers the Arab perspective on the invasion, and among foreign translations, Noam Chomsky’s Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda.

FP: How do people obtain books?

AM: Amrikanli was so popular that people paid booksellers in advance to reserve a copy. Book festivals draw big crowds because they sell such a wide variety of material, from new poetry to historical works on religion and politics. Even illiterate farmers attend book festivals, with the idea that they can buy the most important books and pass them on to the next generation.

FP: How has the war in Iraq affected Yemen’s cultural life?

AM: We now ask, what is it all for? Oil? People are perplexed. I myself haven’t written a single poem on this subject because I feel like I’m choking, and I think many poets feel something similar. This has been a lost year in our lives.

The war has also inspired young people to turn to French and German instead of English, the hegemonic nations’ language. French and German departments are growing at universities here.

FP: Where do people get their news?

AM: The young intelligentsia reads the cultural pages of newspapers from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. In terms of TV, everyone likes Al Jazeera best. Dubai TV is popular, and some people watch CNN International. Yemenis call Alhurra, the U.S. government-sponsored Arabic satellite channel, "the despot’s station" or "the voice of Bush." Many people had it removed from their satellite menu. It’s like inviting President George W. Bush into your home, and he is persona non grata. Alhurra is money wasted.

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