Witnessing the Loss of Our Heritage [Archives:2000/44/Culture]

Ismail Al-Ghaberi
Yemen Times
Yemens traditional folkloric heritage is known for its different cultural variety that is in harmony with the different circumstances of climate, geographical terrains and local environment. The difference in life on mountains, valleys and deserts constitutes a very interesting and colorful tradition. 
Yemeni traditions also vary in accordance with the economic output, be it agricultural, industrial, handicrafts, commercial, political, etc. Such diversity is noticeable in mans appearance, habits, conventions, etc. creating a unique Yemeni panorama with many colorful pictures that are less seen in other countries in the peninsula. Roughness of difficult and rough terrains has influenced the typical Yemeni and forced him to adapt himself to life here and to tackle all difficulties by reason. Building dams and fortresses, digging irrigation canals, and making irrigation terraces and roads are examples of the ability of Yemenis to exploit nature and deal with it for their good.
This heritage had been preserved and communicated by generations until the 1970s which mark the beginning of the internal and external emigration.
Internal Emigration.
Social stability, security and peace after the revolution on September 26, 1962 motivated emigration from the countryside to cities where life seemed easier with more work opportunities. As a result, a new mixture of public tradition emerged. Common features also started to appear such as traditional dresses, public culture, ceremonies and various social rituals.
External Emigration
With the boom of oil industry in the gulf region in the 1970s, doors were wide open for Yemenis due to the need of manpower and other factors such as neighborhood and easiness of transportation. 
Yemenis moved from their conservative environment and limited resources to an environment based on money and superficial perceptionof civilized life.It was a difficult to shift from farm-work to performing activities that are absolutelydifferent from what they used to do.
Besides forsaking and abandoning cultivation of arable land, a whole setup of traditions was stopped. For example, irrigation terraces, irrigation canals, local traditional production and all cultural activities such as traditional songs accompanying cultivation, harvest gatherings, rain seasons, etc. sank into oblivion.
The thirst for materialistic gains and increase in per capita income resulted from emigration similarly, working in the gulf countries was accompanied by a gradual decline in the spirit of social solidarity and cooperation that used to be part and parcel of the structure of Yemeni pastoral society. This resulted in a kind of confusion in our economy in the form of consolidating backward consumption values that have nothing to do with farming, let alone its consequences of abolishing the traditional heritage and the national identity of people. Wedding ceremonies change, clothing changes, solidarity disappears, architectural peculiarity has been tarnished and oral songs have yielded place to recorded ones. The mechanized mills have silenced that enchanting voice of women hand-milling.
Development Movement
A comprehensive development coincided with external emigration which brought into the country features and conditions of the contemporary civilization such as schools, hospitals, roads, cars, offices all of whichwere new to our Yemeni society. Availability of financial resources in the 1970s and beginning of 1980s helped develop those features. The modern technology brought about new values that do not agree with the inherited rustic values. 
Overwhelmed by modernity values, our society began imitating societies with superficial modernity which neither helped it preserve its tradition nor developed its own modernity. 
The Yemeni man abandoned his old house unaware of its historical values. He abandoned his field at a moment of prosperity, gave up growing coffee in a race to cultivate qat and was enchanted by the printed books and forgot his valuable scripts. He ran after importing African livestock giving no consideration to how important animal wealth is to our country. Fathers forgot what their forefathers had taught them about agriculture, astrology, rain seasons and climate and sent their sons and daughters to universities to study agricultural sciences that proved to be a failure in our local environment for their inability to find solutions to boost agricultural development.
Religious and Ideological Extremism
The local tradition has greatly been affected by a number of religious and ideological calls, some of which came from the gulf. 
Many religious ideas against tradition, conventions, literature and art have arisen under the pretext of religion, that worked in effacing features and identity of the people. Disregarding the aims of such opinions and ideas, be they political or social, tradition has been always the victim. Attacks on historical shrines and sites were performed under the theme of prohibition, purging religion. Such ideas changed the clothes, affected the social relationship between man and woman. They also changed the social roles and canceled womans role in production when it was decided to keep her at home. 
Education
The inappropriateness of educational curricula in raising awareness of tradition created a wide gap between generations and their local environment and built barriers between them and their inherited values. 
The negative values those curricula brought about made it easy for the youth to accept any extremist calls and destroy their society and community thinking what they are doing was right. 
Future of Traditional Literature, Culture and Art
The threat imposed on traditional heritage is passing through different levels: local, regional, and international. Globalization as the concept implies is a real threat to our nations heritage. Regarding factors which are threatening the traditional heritage, we should ask what we have done to preserve it. To answer, we need to:
1- classify our traditional, literary and artistic heritage,
2- carry out specialized surveys all over Yemen,
3- encourage academic and specialized departments at universities to do researches on traditional heritage,
4- complete all tourist surveys all over the country,
5- encourage and motivate handicrafts and traditional ceremonies,
6- organize cultural festivals to activate, document and record traditional activities,
7- enrich the art and Traditional Heritage Documenting Center with available arts and literature,
8- organize festivals for traditional poetry, songs and tales, 
9- raise peoples awareness about importance of heritage,
10- prepare generations to care about it by including it in educational curricula, and 
11- encounter all anti-traditional calls.

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