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Yemen
English (translation)Original French
199 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 3, 2012
This book starts out with the lore and legends of the Yemenite people. The historical anecdotes hook the reader, and the pen and ink drawings that begin each chapter are by the Yemenite artist, Fouad el-Foutaih.
When Deonna Laurence, a Swiss French journalist, originally came to Yemen in the latter part of the 20th century, she was horrified by its poverty, lack of education, and diseases. However, she loves Yemen--of this there is no doubt--and if you want a good look at Yemen as it was 30 or 40 years ago, this is it. Among other things, she noticed that Yemen imported everything and that the people in Yemen joked about Yemen being the poorest richest and most expensive country. What they meant by that is the State was--still is--poor, but money was everywhere. A square foot of land in the center of Sanaa was worth the same, at the time--according to Laurence--as the same bit in Paris or New York.
Quat was a problem, as is pretty well known. The people chewed themselves into a stupor, which explained why production was low. It was outlawed on weekends for a while, but the law was repealed. Many people, Laurence noted, had green teeth. Since quat was more lucrative than coffee, the inevitable planting shift occurred. She writes that the drug was used (still is) often, to deal with illnesses. She met women from the Khadams, semi-nomadic women belonging to the lowest caste, who like lowest caste people in other poor countries, expected her, as a Westerner, to cure them of their diseases.
One disease not seen a lot in her stay was cancer and heart disease, no doubt because Yemenites never cease climbing up steep mountains and stairs.
One of the strangest stories in the book is about emigrants in Yemen. There was a Vietnamese-Yemenite refugee camp near Taiz set up in 1976. There were about 300 Vietnamese- Yemenite families packed into concrete bungalows built around a large courtyard. They had no electricity (although all anyone needed to do was extend a line to the power cables running along the road). The Vietnamese came into Yemen with the fall of Saigon in 1975. The inhabitants of the camp that Laurence discovered were all related by blood or marriage to the descendants of Yemenite sailors and merchants who left Aden bound for Asia at the beginning of the 20th century. Their women dressed in Vietnamese pajamas and lived a lonely life and were ostracized because they did not wear the veil. (I found mention of Vietnamese descendants in Yemen on Wikipedia, but no mention of this camp.)
Towards the end of the book, Laurence dives into stories of mixed marriages and their progeny. One fairy-tale like story tells of the children of a French-Polish woman and a Yemenite docker who were spied by some agents of the king and brought to him. HE vowed to have them raised in the royal court because he was so taken with their beauty. Their father was ultimately allowed to see them once a month on a Friday.
The little boy. Ali, became the favored one of the king, who gave the boy a fine horse when he was a little and then an American automobile for his 11th birthday. Saida, the little girl, grew up and married a Yemenite guard of the Republic.
This is a very interesting book for lovers of Arabia and Yemen who want to know what Yemen was like before the turn of the 21st century.
When Deonna Laurence, a Swiss French journalist, originally came to Yemen in the latter part of the 20th century, she was horrified by its poverty, lack of education, and diseases. However, she loves Yemen--of this there is no doubt--and if you want a good look at Yemen as it was 30 or 40 years ago, this is it. Among other things, she noticed that Yemen imported everything and that the people in Yemen joked about Yemen being the poorest richest and most expensive country. What they meant by that is the State was--still is--poor, but money was everywhere. A square foot of land in the center of Sanaa was worth the same, at the time--according to Laurence--as the same bit in Paris or New York.
Quat was a problem, as is pretty well known. The people chewed themselves into a stupor, which explained why production was low. It was outlawed on weekends for a while, but the law was repealed. Many people, Laurence noted, had green teeth. Since quat was more lucrative than coffee, the inevitable planting shift occurred. She writes that the drug was used (still is) often, to deal with illnesses. She met women from the Khadams, semi-nomadic women belonging to the lowest caste, who like lowest caste people in other poor countries, expected her, as a Westerner, to cure them of their diseases.
One disease not seen a lot in her stay was cancer and heart disease, no doubt because Yemenites never cease climbing up steep mountains and stairs.
One of the strangest stories in the book is about emigrants in Yemen. There was a Vietnamese-Yemenite refugee camp near Taiz set up in 1976. There were about 300 Vietnamese- Yemenite families packed into concrete bungalows built around a large courtyard. They had no electricity (although all anyone needed to do was extend a line to the power cables running along the road). The Vietnamese came into Yemen with the fall of Saigon in 1975. The inhabitants of the camp that Laurence discovered were all related by blood or marriage to the descendants of Yemenite sailors and merchants who left Aden bound for Asia at the beginning of the 20th century. Their women dressed in Vietnamese pajamas and lived a lonely life and were ostracized because they did not wear the veil. (I found mention of Vietnamese descendants in Yemen on Wikipedia, but no mention of this camp.)
Towards the end of the book, Laurence dives into stories of mixed marriages and their progeny. One fairy-tale like story tells of the children of a French-Polish woman and a Yemenite docker who were spied by some agents of the king and brought to him. HE vowed to have them raised in the royal court because he was so taken with their beauty. Their father was ultimately allowed to see them once a month on a Friday.
The little boy. Ali, became the favored one of the king, who gave the boy a fine horse when he was a little and then an American automobile for his 11th birthday. Saida, the little girl, grew up and married a Yemenite guard of the Republic.
This is a very interesting book for lovers of Arabia and Yemen who want to know what Yemen was like before the turn of the 21st century.
April 17, 2013
awesome travelogues - witty language and tales.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews