Celebrating Nov. 30 independence Literature is powerful as artillery shells [Archives:2002/50/Reportage]
BY ISMAEL AL-GHABIRY
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
The 30th of November is of great significance to all the Yemeni people. It was on this day that the Yemeni people in South Yemen got their independence from being under the control of Britain.
It was in this day that the Yemenis felt how important their struggle against the colonizer was. The 30th of November is then as remarkable day as the 26th of September and 14th of October, days that mark revolutions that set Yemeni free internally from the rule of imams.
We have to bear in mind that the 30th of November is an embodiment of the Yemenis’ hopes and expectations, as our forefathers offered their blood and souls for their independence.
As far as the relationship between the 30th of November and literature is concerned we can say that literature had played a very great and powerful role in the making of this day. It is in this way that literature, especially poetry, had driven the revolutionary people to double their efforts and get independence quickly.
Therefore, this independence was based on story and sharp literature. It did not come from vacuum. During the 128 years of colonization, literary people had produced rich literature.
Poetry and revolutionary songs also had a strong role in enhancing and strengthening the morale of the people. Poems and revolutionary songs had paved the roads to independence. We have to bear in mind also that a great number of literary people participated in this struggle to achieve independence.
All poets in Yemen, whether in Saadah or Almahra, had the same feelings.
The reason was that they were all fighting for the same purpose. On the light of that a line of poetry was equal to an artillery shell in the battle. For revolutionary people, poems were considered as candles lighting their ways which they went through so as to achieve freedom, democracy and a better life.
Independence meant among other things that the Yemeni people would never be submissive to tyrant rulers. The revolutionary poem could shake the whole country. This shows the unity among the Yemenis whether in Hajjah or Hadramout, in Aden or in Hodeidah, in Taiz or in Shabwa in Mareb of in Lahj.
If it had not been for the Yemeni revolutions and this independence day, the Yemenis would not have reached the democracy they are enjoying at the present time. In other words independence had been achieved as it aimed for good aims of establishing freedom, good life and democracy.
——
[archive-e:50-v:2002-y:2002-d:2002-12-09-p:./2002/iss50/report.htm]
