Abd al-Bari Taher
Journalist and Researcher
Former Head of the Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate
Migration has been Yemen’s grand historical narrative throughout the ages. In the Sabaean, Minaean, and Himyarite states, Yemenis were traders who traveled across horizons east and west. After the collapse of civilization and the destruction of the Great Dam, Yemenis became migrants across the world, participating in the wars that shaped the region and helped build its entities. They stood at the forefront of the Islamic conquests, reaching India and China in the east, and al-Andalus and Poitiers in the heart of Europe.
To understand the role of migrants in the September 1962 and October 1963 revolutions, one must first examine their contribution to building, financing, and sustaining the national movement: the Free Yemeni Movement in the north and the Association of Sons of the South in Aden and other areas. Migrants also played a prominent role in the rise of the labor movement, modern political parties, and civil society institutions, especially in Aden and in the diaspora. Since the first quarter of the 20th century, nearly forty newspapers emerged in the diaspora of Southeast Asia, as well as al-Salam in Cardiff, Britain; al-Sadaqa in Egypt; Sawt al-Yemen (for a short period); in addition to their participation in al-Shura newspaper issued by the Palestinian Mohammed Ali al-Taher, and al-Rabita al-Arabiya.
Northern migrants supported the Free Yemeni Party and Yemeni students, purchasing the Sawt al-Yemen press in 1946. Migrant and returning merchants played a significant role in modernizing the social structure and introducing capitalist relations. Under the influence of students returning from Iraq and Egypt, the nucleus of the modern Yemeni army was formed, which played a decisive role in the 1948 Constitutional Revolution and later in the events of 1955.
The migrant—whether student, civilian or military, trader or worker—was the true protagonist in renewing the state and driving change, as well as in supporting the revolution. He constantly compared the countries where he studied or worked with Yemen’s conditions under the feudal Mutawakkilite State before the September 26 Revolution: a country isolated from the world and the modern age, ruled by the “evil trinity” of poverty, ignorance, and disease—leaving him shocked and determined to change.
The migrant trader, in particular, left a visible impact on building institutions, commerce, and modern economic relations, even if constrained. He encouraged modern education, supported students, and sustained the mother national movement, while also backing the modern military formation—especially the Free Officers. Studying the leaders of old and new political parties, and the labor union movement, reveals the profound influence of migration in shaping modern opposition politics and the transformations that paved the way for the Yemeni revolution.
Capital remitted from abroad or brought back to major cities contributed to relative prosperity, creating new collective social consciousness, stimulating civil activism, and fostering the rise of modern forces: workers, traders, students, civic groups, along with artistic, literary, and political movements.
In the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s, Aden was Yemen’s great gateway to migration. From there, workers, students, and traders traveled abroad and returned, fueling the flourishing of civic life, labor unions, and political parties. It was in Aden that the Free Yemeni Party was founded in 1944, followed by the Greater Yemeni Association in 1946. The first Yemeni political formation in Egypt, the Yemeni Youth Battalion, was established in 1940, whose founding statement was signed by Azharite students such as al-Nu‘man, al-Zubayri, Mohammed Ali al-Jifri, and al-Bayhani—who became the pioneers of the national movement in both the north and the south.
The Second World War (1939–1945) had profound global consequences. Progressive thinker Abdullah Abdulrazzaq Badhieb traced its immense impact on Yemeni traders, especially migrants, and how it reshaped public life, social structures, and the role of the middle class and other strata. Out of these strata emerged the tools of revolution. The Free Officers Organization, which ignited the September 26, 1962 Revolution, was largely composed of young officers from the middle class and poor peasant backgrounds.
Migrants flocked from across the world to support the revolution. They were its essential backbone, safeguarding it, building the national economy, and helping to establish the state’s institutions. Many of their sons held ministerial and administrative posts, chaired institutions and companies, and joined the army and security forces. Migrants were the protective wall that defended the revolution.
Marshal Abdullah al-Sallal, the first President of the Republic, famously said:
“The Yemeni is a natural fighter, and also a migrant human being.”
Indeed, the Yemeni is inherently a migrant. This is echoed by the great poet Abdullah al-Baraddouni, who addressed Imam Ahmad with the lines:
“Why the silence, when half your people here suffer, and the other half are scattered among nations as exiles?”
The migrant businessman Alwan al-Shibani, with his profound vision, recognized the vital role of migration in building the new Yemen, fostering development, modernization, and unity. He launched the “Mutual Impacts of Migration” project, forming a committee of researchers, intellectuals, writers, and specialists. Over two years, they produced studies and research involving experts and firsthand experiences from across Yemen, culminating in seven volumes, with a significant focus on Hadrami migration, funded by businessman Jamal bin Omar after the death of the great Alwan al-Shibani.
The Yemeni migrant played a crucial role in supporting the national budget and economy. While studies on their role in the revolution remain few, there is no doubt that they were central to reformist and renewalist movements before the revolution, sustaining the nation’s vitality and growth. In the diaspora, journalism and literary creativity were born. In literature, pioneering works emerged in fiction such as The Girl from Garut by al-Saqqaf, The Village of al-Batul by Hanaybir, and They Die Strangers by Mohammed Abdul Wali—among the earliest narrative experiments in the Arabian Peninsula. In poetry, innovators such as Mohammed An‘am Ghalib, Saeed al-Shibani, and Ibrahim Sadiq emerged, alongside Mutahhar al-Iryani’s epic on migration al-Balah.
Under President Ibrahim al-Hamdi, the role of migrants expanded into Yemen’s regions and remote villages. They contributed to public services: building roads, digging wells, providing electricity, constructing modern schools, and sponsoring students. For the first time, a conference of migrants was convened, and a ministry for migrants was established after the revolution—later institutionalized and revived by President al-Hamdi.
