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Introduction When the protests of the Southern Move- “Spaces in the Making:” ment (al-Hirak al-Janubi) started in 2007, Peripheralization and Spatial activists called for solutions to the pre- carious socio-economic situation in the Injustice in Southern Yemen country and for an end to the marginal- ization of southern Yemenis in the cen- tralized state after unity. After Yemeni state security forces reacted with vio- lence, the social movement seeking eco- nomic integration transformed into an umbrella movement of various groups, organizations and NGOs with a concrete political objective, that of state indepen- dence of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). During the so- called Arab Spring, the Southern Move- ment perceived new opportunities for mobilization against (northern) “Yemeni Occupation,” as relations between north and south are often described in the southern political discourse. Drawing near Fischer-Tahir and Naumann Anne-Linda Amira Augustin (2013), I examine the factors contributing to peripheralization (change in economy, By using the concept of peripheralization that politically produced spatial injustice demography, political decision-making, as defined by Fischer-Tahir and Naumann has strengthened the desire for Southern and socio-cultural norms and values) and (2013), I examine how processes of Yemeni independence. how they have marginalized Southern change in economy, demography, politi- Yemen after 1990, and especially after the cal decision-making, and socio-cultural Keywords: Peripheralization; Spatial war of 1994. These selected examples are norms and values have marginalized Injustice; Southern Movement; Southern the very often discussed themes in politi- Southern Yemen after 1990, and espe- Yemen cal discourses of Southern Movement cially after the war of 1994. I will argue activists that encourage political mobili-
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zation in the south. Furthermore, some of processes of change in the economy, tion in space of socially valued resources the cases had enormous relevance on a demography, political decision-making and the opportunities to use them. national scale and were therefore dis- and socio-cultural norms and values” cussed within the National Dialogue Con- (Fischer-Tahir and Naumann 9). Peripher- Processes of Change in the Economy ference.1 I will argue that politically pro- alization refers to a spatially organized The discovery of oil in Hadhramaut and duced spatial injustice (Soja, “Seeking”) inequality of power relations and access Marib was an influential factor in calls for as the result of unequitable distribution to material and symbolic goods that con- Yemeni unity in the late 1980s. Oil had of resources and opportunities has struct and perpetuate the precedence of been found in the south in 1982 (Dresch strengthened the desire for Southern centers over areas that are marginalized 161), but oil production in the southern Yemeni independence. (18). High levels of poverty associated with region started on a commercial scale only In taking a critical geography perspective, political and economic dependence on after Yemeni unity in 1990 and has since I will show how spaces are socially pro- centers or other regions, decline or dis- been the driving force of Yemen’s econ- duced on different scales. This article2 is connection with respect to infrastructural omy. Approximately 80 percent of Yemen’s based on field work in Aden, Abyan and networks and services, marginalization oil fields are situated in the southern gov- Radfan (in the Lahij governorate), and a and stigmatization, as well as loss of ernorate of Hadhramaut (EIA). However, series of interviews with grassroots actors opportunities and life chances articulate according to Bafana, the local residents of the Southern Movement between peripheralization (21). All of these dimen- have had no benefits in the form of the March and May 2014 and in early 2015.3 sions are expressions of social injustice, economic development of their region produced and perpetuated by structures and, conversely, have suffered from pol- Peripheralization in Yemen’s South and that uphold the unequal distribution of luted ground water due to contamination the Emergence of the Southern Move- power and inequitable access for some from oil production. Southern oil has been ment segments of society to economic and exploited by the regime in Sanaa to the This section contributes to an under- political decision-making bodies on a benefit of the patronage networks and standing of the emergence of the South- local, regional, national, supra-national, or associates of leading figures in that ern Movement in 2007 by showing that global scale (22). In the following, I will regime. As a result, and following the kill- its development is connected to pro- analyze—based on selected examples— ing of the influential tribal Sheikh Saad bin cesses of peripheralization of Southern processes of change that lead to periph- Habrish al-Hamumi by a Yemeni soldier in Yemen that predominantly began after eralization of Southern Yemen and that late 2013, the Hadhrami Tribal Alliance the war in 1994. show expressions of “spatial injustice” mounted a limited insurgency against the The term “peripheralization” describes the (Soja, “Seeking”). Spatial (in)justice refers Yemeni regime, its supporters in the process of becoming disconnected from, to an intentional and focused emphasis on region, and the army, claiming that they and dependent on, centers. In this sense, the spatial aspects of justice and injustice. had all profited from Hadhrami oil reve- a periphery is “the outcome of complex It involves the fair and equitable distribu- nues for many years at the expense of
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local people. This was accompanied by agement of the Port of Aden. However, its struggle to restore it given that, due to its pressure on Yemeni and international oil ambitious aims to develop the economic significant geographical position, it companies in the region demanding that growth of the port were never achieved, became the main battleground of the they employ more Hadhramis and offer not least because Dubai Ports World did 2015 war in Yemen.6 supply and service contracts to local com- not keep its investment promises. Many in panies. The Hadhrami Tribal Alliance also Aden perceived the contract as a bargain Processes of Change in the Demography demanded that all security services for oil basement sale that only served the inter- At the time of Yemeni unity in 1990, there companies operating in the region should national strategy of Dubai Ports World. At was an enormous population imbalance be provided by Hadhramis and demanded the end of September 2012, the Yemeni between northern and southern regions. the withdrawal of the army (Bafana). When government terminated the contract Though the two regimes agreed to share the government did not comply with these (Augustin). Despite being one of the big- power equally during a transition period, demands, there was an escalation of vio- gest natural harbors of the world, Aden southerners represented only approxi- lence reaching the level of uprising. operates well below its potential due to mately one quarter of the entire popula- Geographically uneven “development”4 inaction in Sanaa on essential structural tion of the country. This imbalance rein- and “underdevelopment” provide a frame reforms, establishing effective legal pro- forced peripheralization of the south and of reference for understanding the pro- tection and developing infrastructure to came into political relevance in the 1993 cesses that produce injustices (Soja, “The adapt to changes in shipping require- elections. Despite the fact that the Yemeni City” 3). This is well exemplified by the Port ments. Added to this is the piracy and lack Socialist Party (YSP) came in first by land- of Aden. In the 1950s it was the second of security in the Horn of Africa. Terrorist slide in Southern Yemen, it only finished busiest harbor in the world after New York. attacks such as the one on the USS Cole in third behind President Ali Abdullah Salih’s As a British colonial port, Aden was con- 2000 led to an increase in insurance pre- General People’s Congress (GPC) and the ceived by the British as a central point for miums and deterred shipping companies Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) trade between Europe and Asia, the Ara- from using Aden. More recently, the ter- (Al-Bab). These election results helped bian Peninsula, and East Africa. Six months rorism of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penin- precipitate the crisis between the northern before the independence of South Yemen sula (AQAP) has exacerbated the prob- and southern leaderships that led to the in 1967, the port’s activity decreased by 75 lem: for several months in 2011 and 2012, 1994 war, in which northern forces with the percent when the Suez Canal was closed Ansar al-Sharia, an AQAP offshoot, set up support of southern allies defeated the during the Six Day Arab-Israeli War and it an Islamic Emirate in the governorate of remnants of the PDRY armed forces. did not reopen until 1975 (Halliday 239). In Abyan, a mere fifty kilometers east of In April 2014, southern Facebook groups 1990, the Aden Container Terminal and Aden.5 As a result, and due to competition headlined the news that in Abyan, north- the Aden Free Trade Zone were estab- from ports such as Dubai, Salalah and Dji- erners tried to obtain locally issued pass- lished to attract international investment. bouti, Aden has lost its former significant ports and identity cards (Alomanaa). The In 2008, Dubai Ports World took over man- position as a crucial harbor city and will news presented it as an attempt to change
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the demographic composition in the war, the institutionalized marginalization state reacted immediately in 2007 with south prior to the holding of the referen- of southerners increased and became a measures to reintegrate into the army and dum on the planned new constitution that source of spatial injustice. After its defeat civil service the southerners who had ultimately—due to the war—did not take over the south in 1994, the Sanaa regime been forced to retire after the 1994 war place. There are doubts as to whether this decided to force most of military officers (University scholar, personal conversa- actually happened and, indeed, if it hap- and soldiers as well as many civil servants tion). This locational discrimination is pened, whether a change of population from the south into retirement. Many of essential in the production of spatial injus- composition was its aim. The demographic these southerners did not receive the tice and the creation of lasting spatial imbalance between northern and south- appropriate pension;7 they and their chil- structures of privilege and advantage ern Yemen stokes fears that go back to the dren became the basis of the Southern (Soja, “The City” 3). Furthermore, institu- trauma of the 1993 elections, when the Movement in 2007. In 2013, Yemen estab- tionalized marginalization took place at YSP lost its position as leading party. This lished a $1.2 billion fund to compensate governorate levels, where senior posi- story shows that anxieties of “occupation” southern state employees and soldiers for tions were awarded to northerners. South- and of marginalization are profoundly their financial losses after their retirement erners had less access, in general, to jobs ingrained in southern Yemeni memories or dismissal following the 1994 war (Gho- than northerners, because during and and discourses. bari). This followed acceptance by the after 1994, the army of the Sanaa regime government—highlighted by discussions looted and closed down most southern Processes of Change in Political Decision- within the NDC—that southerners had jus- public sector companies and factories,9 Making tifiable grievances that had to be thus increasing unemployment (Dahl- Concerning southern Yemen, processes addressed. The compensation fund was gren, “Southern Movement” 50). Even of change in political decision-making are only a partial, short-term response but today businessmen complain that an the most profound reasons why Southern was nevertheless important, even though investor who wants to establish a business Yemen became peripheralized after unity. it does not solve the deep economic or a factory in Southern Yemen faces more Thus, this section is the longest, although problems of Yemen, which need long- difficulties than he or she would find in the I selected only some examples. Despite term solutions and radical reform. By north. According to an influential Abyani, the analytical value of Fischer-Tahir and 2014, it seemed nearly impossible to solve inducements have to be paid to govern- Naumann’s conceptualization, ‘political all of the socio-economic problems in the ment officials or a partnership has to be decision making’ is not clearly defined. I poorest country of the Arab world. As offered to influential northern business- therefore suggest that processes of noted above, the “southern cause”8 up to men (Influential Abyani, personal conver- change in political decision-making refer 2007 was essentially one of economic sation). to large-scale institutionalized discrimina- marginalization. According to an econo- The political formation of space is a nota- tion of southerners by Sanaa-ruled state mist of Aden University, the Southern bly powerful source of spatial injustice bodies and institutions. After the 1994 Movement would not exist today had the (Soja, “The City” 3), which is observable in
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the concentration of political decision- nationalized land was returned to previ- (Zinjibar refugee, personal conversation). making in Sanaa and which, for example, ous owners or people pretending to be The government payments were to be occurs in the educational sector. Before so. In addition, new decrees and invest- made in three instalments. People unity, many southerners had obtained ment regulations reorganized land owner- received the first instalment but are still scholarships from the PDRY government ship. The 1991 “September Directive” facil- waiting for the second and third instal- to study abroad; after unity, scholarships itated the distribution of state land, but in ments. Given their bad living conditions, were limited (Dahlgren, “Southern Move- some cases different government depart- on April 15, 2014, angry Abyanis blocked ment” 51) and southerners found that it ments, such as the Ministry of Construc- the road between Zinjibar and Aden to was very difficult to access them. They sur- tion, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the protest and demonstrate their resentment mised that this was largely because north- General Investment Authority, distributed at the delay and the procedures used (Al- ern elites corrupted the process. The the same land plots to different people. Shair). same applied to civil service positions, Furthermore, these ministries and the including teachers. Teaching positions in regime distributed much land in the Processes of Change in Socio-Cultural today’s Yemen are principally obtained southern areas to supporters of the Sanaa Norms and Values through an intermediary in Sanaa, who regime, state employees, army officers, According to its socialist principles, the may want a bribe. Most young people and civil servants (Pritzkat 66-67).10 PDRY government implemented a num- wait for years after their university gradu- The before-mentioned Abyan War in 2011- ber of social policies and provided a range ation to get jobs as civil servants, and the 2012 destroyed much of the governorate’s of services to the population that became private sector is too weak to absorb them capital Zinjibar and its surrounding areas. part of the daily life of PDRY citizens. At in a country where youth unemployment Grievances in Abyan were further exacer- unity in 1990, the PDRY and Arab Republic exceeds 50 percent. bated by a slow and inadequate govern- of Yemen (YAR) had different levels of One of the most hotly debated issues con- ment program to repair the damages to development with respect to their educa- cerns land grievances in Southern Yemen. Zinjibar and other areas and to relieve the tion and health care systems, as well as on Problems of land ownership rights plight of the people. The Yemeni govern- subsidies for food, jobs and housing. The emerged after unity in 1990 and caused a ment promised to pay the refugees to socialist southern state had tried to abol- great deal of conflict which is still ongoing help them rebuild their houses. However, ish tribalism, but after unity, the Sanaa today. The PDRY, following the takeover of according to a refugee from Zinjibar, some regime encouraged tribalism fostered by power by the left wing of the National Lib- of the engineers responsible for assessing the return of some of the previous ruling eration Front in the “Glorious Corrective the damages to houses and calculating families of the pre-PDRY sultanates. In the Move” of 1969, issued laws that dispos- the amount of money that was to be paid PDRY, the influence of religion was sessed influential families and former sul- to affected households demanded bribes restricted: it was not a matter for the state tans and benefited small holders and to record the actual, or higher, costs of re- but for private individuals. Particularly after landless households. After 1990, much construction for the houses on their lists the 1994 war, southerners started to dis-
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cover and experience conservative Islam music, sports and arts, and the two sub- ceptions and ideas that brought the south (Dahlgren, “Contesting Realities”). This jects of Qurʾanic and Islamic studies to the present-day situation, in which notably manifested itself through the replaced the subject religious studies. southerners’ right to self-determination is wearing of full veils and abayas for women After the war, the ministry abolished ignored, as they are considered southern and long beards for men. Sheikh mixed-sex schools as well. Furthermore, “Yemenis.” It is in this context that south- ʿAbd al-Majid al-Zindani and his followers cinemas and theaters closed, as the state erners go back to the appellation of partly induced this change by asserting no longer subsidized cultural activities “South Arabia.” This identity construction that southerners were infidels.11 People (Al-Khatib). is predicated on the perception of being were afraid of being molested in the The “southern cause” is an identity issue in “occupied” by the north since the lost war streets, attacked, or even killed; the mur- addition to being a socio-economic and of 1994. According to activists, it is the der of at least 150 socialists between 1990 political one. With the emergence of the experience of large-scale marginalization and 1993 was probably the work of reli- Southern Movement, the conception of after 1994, including spatial injustice, and gious extremists (Brehony 188). Al-Zindani the “South Arabian identity” became a the widespread perception in the south travelled to Southern Yemen after unity to basic discursive means to claim indepen- that the state is absent, as state structures spread his ideas among the youth in Fri- dence. Among activists of the Southern and institutions are inactive, passive and day prayers. Young people were espe- Movement, the term “Yemeni” nowadays ineffective, which promote the will for a cially open to advice on the nature of the is only used with reference to northern return to independence (Southern Move- right path at a time of huge social trans- Yemenis and is equated with backward- ment activists, interviews). formations in the south. Changes in life- ness and conservative thinking (Rogler style took place: in 1994 Islamists demol- 28). “South Arabian identity” is based on Conclusion ished the Aden brewery. By contrast, the the representations of the past and experi- Referring to Fischer-Tahir and Naumann, government did not maintain the PDRY ences made during the period of British the developments in Aden and in the restrictions on qat consumption (it was rule when it was commonly known as entire south designate the process of allowed only on weekends in Aden), and South Arabia. Narratives from the PDRY, becoming disconnected from and as qat became available on a daily basis, for example, emphasize southerners’ abil- dependent on centers, as seen in its use spread to parts of the south where ity to create a civil state. The socialists of changes in economy, demography, polit- it had previously not been used. The pro- the PDRY tried to rid the country of its ical decision-making, and last but not gressive Family Law of the PDRY was colonial heritage by introducing the term least, in processes of change in socio- replaced by the YAR’s conservative law “Yemen” into the state’s appellation, which cultural norms and values. High levels of right after unity, and women’s rights were activists of the Southern Movement reject poverty, decline of infrastructural net- also rigorously restricted (Dahlgren, “Con- today. The pan-Arab nationalism of the works and services, marginalization and testing Realities”). The Ministry of Educa- 20th century is for many, especially young stigmatization of southerners, as well as tion abolished school subjects such as southerners, an outdated morass of con- loss of life opportunities and insecurity
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Anne-Linda Amira Augustin are part of the daily life of most southern- these dimensions express spatial injus- and political decision-making bodies on ers and have thus contributed to the tice, produced by structures of unequal various scales. is a research associate in Middle Eastern emergence and consolidation of the power distribution and inequitable Studies and Sociology in the research Southern Movement in Yemen. All of access for most southerners to economic network “Re-Configurations: History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes in the Middle East and North Notes 3 Other than open structured 5 Ansar al-Sharia—a group others rented flats. More the surrounding southern Africa” at the Center for Near and Middle and narrative interviews with linked to AQAP—took over were forced to flee as a result governorates became the Eastern Studies at Philipps-University 1 The NDC resulted from the Southern Movement activists the city of Jaar in Abyan for of the fighting that took place principal battleground of this Marburg. She holds an M.A. in Middle Gulf Cooperation Council’s of various ages originating close to a year in 2011-2012 when the Yemeni armed war. The southern resistance, from all southern Yemeni following the withdrawal of forces—supported by US in which the segments of Eastern Studies, Russian and French. Initiative that initiated the transitional processes in governorates, I undertook security forces to the north as drone and missile strikes—re- the Southern Movement are Her current research interests include Yemen in late 2011. The NDC participant observations a result of the confrontation captured the territory. integrated, liberated Aden independence and protest movements, started on March 18, 2013 during their demonstrations, between President Salih from the Houthi and the Salih unrecognized statehood, social space and ended in January 2014. lectures, as well as during on the one hand and Ali 6 The military intervention militias on July 14, 2015. private meetings. These Muhsin al-Ahmar (Salih’s in Yemen began on March production and memory transmission. The principal stakeholders of the Southern Movement observed demonstrations former senior Yemeni 26, 2015, with Saudi Arabia’s 7 For further details, email: [email protected] rejected their participation in and lectures took part in military commander and air strikes under the name see International Crisis the NDC, because the Sanaa Aden’s quarters of Crater, close associate who, on “Decisive Storm,” with Group, “Yemen’s Southern regime under President Tawahi, Qalluʾa, al-Muʾalla, March 18, 2011, declared support from a coalition of Question,” “Breaking Point?”; Hadi and the international Khor Maksar and al-Mansura. his opposition to him) and GCC states (except Oman), Dahlgren, “The Snake,” “The community excluded the the al-Ahmar faction (a Pakistan, Jordan, Sudan, Southern Movement.” right for self-determination of 4 In Uneven Development: family which belongs to the Egypt, and Morocco. The southerners before the talks Nature, Capital and the northern Yemeni Hashid Houthis forced President 8 The “southern cause” began. Production of Space (1984), tribal confederation and Hadi to resign from office (al-qadiyya al-janubiyya) Neil Smith conceptualizes is strongly involved with in January 2015 and put refers to the resistance to the 2 I discussed parts of this the production of spatial ruling the Islah party) on him under house arrest. marginalization of southern paper during the workshop and temporal unevenness. the other came close to civil Six weeks later, in February Yemenis after the PDRY’s “The Future of Yemen: He calls “uneven war. Salih needed his troops 2015, he fled to Aden, unification with the Yemen Between Fragility and development […] the closer to the capital. The where he withdrew from his Arab Republic (YAR) in 1990. Freedom” of the German concrete manifestation of the Ansar al-Sharia grasped the resignation. Internally, Houthi Both the marginalization and Orient Institute in December production of space under opportunity of this power militias and loyalists of Ali the subsequent resistance 2013 and during the capitalism” (90). Uneven vacuum to establish its Abdullah Salih advanced intensified after the war workshop “Future of Yemen” development results from the Emirate of Waqar in Jaar. As southward to take over all of between the north and south at the Gulf Research Meeting investment of capital in the a result, more than 100,000 Yemen. Hadi fled to Saudi in 1994 in which the north in Cambridge in August 2014. built environments in certain people were displaced, and Arabia, when the Houthi and won. areas, while investment in most of them sought refuge Saleh militias entered Aden. other areas remains absent. in Aden. Those without There, he asked for support ––› money stayed in schools; and the coalition began to bomb Yemen. Aden and
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––› 9 For further details, see Works Cited ---. “The Snake with a Halliday, Fred. Arabia without al-Shair, Qais. “Maḥtajūn Southern Issue Working Thousand Heads: The Sultans: A Survey of Political bi-Abyan yaqtaʾūn tarīq Group 4. Al-Bab. “Yemen: 1993 Southern Cause in Yemen.” Instability in the Arab World. “ʿAdnZinjibār” iḥtijājan Parliamentary Election.” Middle East Report 256.40 New York: Vintage Books, ʿalā siyāsat nahab wa ihdār 10 Southern grievances over al-bab.com. Al-Bab 17 June (2010): 28-33. Web. 24 Aug. 1975. Print. amwāl sundūq al-aʾmār bi- land issues were recognized 2009. Web. 24 Aug. 2015. 2015. l-muḥāfaẓa.” yafa-news.net. at the NDC and a special
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––› Interviews
Influential Abyani. Personal conversation. Aden, May 2014.
University scholar (Faculty of Economics at Aden University). Personal conversation. Aden, 11 Apr. 2014.
Southern Movement activists. Personal interviews. Aden, Mar.-Apr. 2014.
Zinjibar refugee. Personal conversation. Village in Abyan, 30 Mar. 2014.
ISSN: 2196-629X http://doi.org/10.17192/ meta.2015.5.3526
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