What Yemen’s war chants reveal about its conflict and culture

Political groups have stolen traditional melodies and replaced words to meet their own sometimes violent needs, although the anthems’ power is fading as the war drags on

REUTERS

People perform the traditional Baraa dance at the yard of Dar al-Hajar, or the Rock Palace, built in the 1930s and become a popular attraction for visitors.

What Yemen’s war chants reveal about its conflict and culture

Huda al-Attas

last update on 25 Jun 2023

Hadramout, Yemen: When Yemen spiralled into civil war in 2015, both sides started using a form of song, or popular chants, in the struggle for hearts and minds as the conflict raged.

Known as ‘zawamil’ in the local dialect, the folkloric anthems became an intense source of rivalry, published on social media and designed to motivate and mobilise supporters, deepening the combat zeal of fighters.

Over time, the chants were offering insight into the war. They provided a point of reference for benchmarking the orientations, locations, sizes, and goals of the sides, both the forces backing former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the government forces loyal to the sitting president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Two extremist groups – the Houthis and Ahl al-Sunnah – also use chants to instil combat enthusiasm among their fighters and supporters. The warlike cries of the two factions are delivered in a powerful and youthful way, making an influential mark on their audience.

These groups, and their war chants, share clear similarities, in terms of their extremist ideologies and their use of religion and war chants to seek political power by force of arms.

The Houthi Cry

The chants fit a typical pattern known among one group at least as ‘the Houthi Cry’.

With a clear rhythmic pattern, they feature populist rhetoric against America and Israel, designed to fire up young fighters for battle. One of them says:

"Death to America, death to Israel/Gaza, Beirut, Sana'a/Nineveh, Tehran, Daraa/All grew with conquest /Jerusalem is the axis for prayer."

In a video clip of one Houthi Cry, a child is shown preaching to a cheering crowd in the fashion of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and Hassan Nasrallah:

"Ready for sacrifice, longing for martyrdom."

Such words come from a Houthi ideology claiming it is a ‘Quranic march’, coupled with a combat ideology with aspirations to rule Yemen and beyond. The movement has a ‘war jihad media’, which translates this belief into chants.

While some of the chants are sung in the local Yemeni dialect and others in Standard Arabic, both types unfailingly make nods to Ahl al-Bayt, in a bid to add sanctity to their call.

Following the example of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Houthis’ social media video clips feature their weapons, missiles, and drones. Anthems in the Yemeni dialect often mingle religious narratives with heritage tales from the regionally partitioned and tribal Yemeni society.

Ideological roots

The militant Salafist faction Ahl al-Sunnah reportedly has its ideological roots among Arab Afghans and al-Qaeda militants.

Like the Houthis, the group used chants as its voice during the war, channelling its ambitions. They invoked religious narratives and notions of holy fighting rooted in the sectarian Sunni/Shiite dichotomy, wrapping the narratives up in violent and threatening rhetoric designed to justify fighting, elevating it to a divine duty, based on tribal and clan divisions.

Yet, the difference between these two equal enemies lies in that the tribalism in the chants of the latter group traces back to a “Salafi tribe,” mixed with a discourse that attacks infidels (takfir) and advocates holy fighting against them.

They invoked religious narratives and notions of holy fighting rooted in the sectarian Sunni/Shiite dichotomy, wrapping the narratives up in violent and threatening rhetoric designed to justify fighting, elevating it to a divine duty, based on tribal and clan divisions.

Dancing soldiers

In the early days of the war, a video made the rounds on social media.

It depicted an officer from the Presidential Guard and his soldiers in southern Yemen dancing near an armoured vehicle. Carrying weapons, they were in full military uniform to the tune of "Mansoura Ya Janoub" (Victory to the South). At the time, the Southerners were high on their victories, and the expulsion of Houthis from Aden and liberation of other southern regions was within sight.

During the war – and because of it – some factions of the Southern Movement had allied themselves with the government, despite having separate political aims. This temporary alliance was imposed by the course of the war and the agendas of its internal and external parties.

This was when the race for superiority in terms of chants ans anthems stood out among groups in the south, including the Peaceful Southern Movement and the Southern Transitional Council.

This was when the race for superiority in terms of chants and anthems stood out among groups in the South, including the Peaceful Southern Movement and the Southern Transitional Council.

These factions participated in the war and achieved victories over the Houthis by liberating southern regions from their grip with the support of the Arab coalition, paving the way for political and administrative participation in the legitimate government.

It made Southerners become familiar with revolutionary anthems at an early stage of the Peaceful Southern Movement. Perhaps such anthems in the South date back to the liberation from the British occupation, followed by independence. Soon, anthems and chants preaching socialism, comradeship, the Soviet "red banner", the proletariat, and other anti-capitalist hyperboles were everywhere.

EPA — Yemenis perform dances during a ceremony on the 33rd anniversary of Yemen unification, in Sana'a, Yemen, 22 May 2023.

These revolutionary chants became commonplace at gatherings, including demonstrations and protests held by the Southern Moment. Many of the anthems were carefully curated by famous authors and composers like Aboud Khawaja, who wrote, composed, and performed many.

But the chants began to lose some of their power, due to a tendency to glorify individual leaders and put them on a pedestal, reducing the status of large groups of people involved in the struggle to boost the status of the person in charge. Today, they are only popular among a handful of supporters whose interests align with a particular party.

The chants began to lose some of their power, due to a tendency to glorify individual leaders and put them on a pedestal, reducing the status of large groups of people involved in the struggle.

Popularity fades

It means the chants of two decaying parties – Ali Abdullah Saleh's former ruling group and the Muslim Brotherhood's Yemeni Congregation for Reform, (Al-Islah party) – are diminishing in popularity.

The two parties were deeply marked by their weakness and subservience to the political and military forces that emerged in the North and South.

Once a strong force, the General People's Congress, to which Al-Islah was affiliated, was the first to be defeated in the war of anthems.

Once a strong force, the General People's Congress, to which Al-Islah was affiliated, was the first to be defeated in the war of anthems.

When its leader Ali Abdullah Saleh rose to power, he celebrated with a huge operetta entitled 'I Saw a Shining Sparkle' at a festival held on the eve of his taking control of Yemen in the wake of the 1994 civil war.

The operetta's militant chants were inspired by Yemeni tribal war heritage and Saleh's famous saying "baptising unity with blood," the blood of his southern countrymen, his partners in establishing unity.

Saleh's fate would later prove to be dramatic after his many years of running Yemen and, in his words, "dancing on the heads of snakes." It would eventually end when Saleh, in effect, fell into a Houthi snake hole.

Yemeni pro-government fighters gather in the back of a pick-up truck near the district of Harib on January 25, 2022, after Yemen's Houthi rebels were expelled from the key battleground.

Chants lose lustre

After his death, the General People's Congress splintered, and its leaders joined different warring groups. The poets who once praised Saleh faded.

Al-Islah is now the main party in Yemen's current war, holding the lion's share in the so-called legitimate government and its decision-making processes. But it had also partnered with Saleh's party in shaping the scene of conflict and fighting in the country.

This partnership had started with the declaration of reunification and continued during the war on the south and the subsequent injustice practised against the region when the leaders of the two allies distributed the land and wealth of the south amongst themselves.

Through their military wing represented by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the two allies fought the 'six wars' against the Houthis, before parting ways when Al-Islah jumped ship, forsaking its coalition of interests in favour of the Arab Spring. After all, the Muslim Brotherhood's infamous opportunistic stances in the Arab Spring narrative and decline are no secret.

As the war drags on, the chants and anthems are losing their lustre.

Political Islam normally frowns upon art – including singing and chants – but it makes an exception for some distorted uses if they suit its discourse.

Traditional famous melodies, with words tailored to an ideological and political message, are now looking ludicrously and completely detached from the true art and heritage of Yemeni folkloric chants.

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