Leveraging Yemen’s Culture in the Fight Against COVID-19

Yemenis using traditional forms of poetic rhyme to warn of the dangers of Covid-19 is but one of many examples of how Yemeni culture and traditions can and should be leveraged to help the country respond to the Covid-19 threat. 

In the midst of existential threats to Yemen’s identity and heritage, the country remains culturally resilient, intent on preserving and strengthening its most vibrant and defining traditions.  In this context, Yemeni citizens act as defenders and safeguards of Yemeni tradition at home and in public forums, where Yemen’s cultural spirit and adaptive capacity are most visibly demonstrated. As the war rages on, these forums endure as vital outlets for cultural expression. Despite outside perceptions of Yemen’s culture as anachronistic, Yemen’s cultural heritage is in fact a fundamentally dynamic, ongoing process of absorption and re-articulation of old and new ideas and influences. Cultural rigidity is antithetical to Yemen’s communal progression.  Now entering its sixth year of violent conflict, the country also is grappling with the outbreak of COVID-19. In confronting this deadly pandemic, Yemenis should do what they always have done when faced with threats from abroad; rely on their traditions for consolation while remaining open to cultural adaptation.  

Local and international experts have warned that Yemen is a prime target for the spread of COVID-19. Ravaged by kaleidoscopic conflicts, malnutrition, natural disasters and a general lack of basic services, the country is ill-prepared to confront this new disease on a national scale.   

As the world’s scientific community desperately seeks a vaccine, in Yemen, ginger, steam, honey, and religious prayer (among other more dubious treatments) are proffered as potential cures.  

In this pseudo-scientific environment, so-called religious leaders are flourishing, capitalizing on Yemen’s cultural attachment to natural remedies for their own gain. Attempting to grow his profile, Mohamed Al-Zindani, son of Sheikh Abdulmajid Al-Zindani, (who infamously claimed to have discovered the cure for AIDS), recently announced his discovery of the cure for this coronavirus. Houthi authorities in Sanaa have also claimed that the cure will “come out of Yemen.”  

However, Yemenis today have significantly more internet access than they did in the past, when religious scholars went relatively unchallenged and verifiable information was harder to come by. The internet is therefore an important educational tool for Yemenis in the fight against COVID-19, and yet, there remains a great deal of misinformation in Yemen, amplified by the internet and social media  which sadly are accepted by many Yemenis as absolute truth owing to the damaged education system and the intrusion of religious groups in school education. Moreover, internet and electricity access remain extremely limited for most Yemenis due to conflict and financial hardship. By providing Yemenis the chance to critically think and access credible sources on the internet, the disaster of COVID-19 in Yemen may be mitigated.  

Yemenis are also turning to more conventional treatments (often used in unconventional ways) to safeguard public health. The use and overuse of disinfectants like chlorine and bleach-based sprays, which are generally unsafe if applied incorrectly, are just one example of how Yemenis are confronting the issue of hygiene. This video shows Yemenis willingly being sprayed with bleach as they enter a market, the evident amusement on their faces characteristic of Yemeni humour and adaptive culture. This example exhibits the dual role (positive and negative) of Yemeni culture. If Yemenis are presented with the medical facts and science, their enthusiasm and culture can quickly adapt to more effective protection measures.  

Youth is also actively engaging in the fight against COVID-19. Young people launched city-wide clean-up initiatives in Aden, and in Taiz, and young people have been taking the temperatures of travellers entering the city. Throughout the country, youth initiatives have distributed informative pictorial flyers, helping to raise awareness of the pandemic in a country suffering from relatively low literacy rates and ongoing disruptions to education. Culturally, Yemeni youth are expected to serve their communities, particularly the old and the destitute. It is these groups in Yemen whose role can be harnessed to spread awareness to combat COVID-19.   

Due to the chronic unavailability of essential healthcare items, Yemenis are resorting to culturally based initiatives. For this heritage-based country, this medium resonates well. For instance, the drummer Mulatif Homaidy, who plays the traditional Yemeni tasah (drum) at weddings, has used social media to showcase how he now performs wearing gloves and a mask. This photograph shows him next to a groom wearing Yemeni wedding attire as well as a mask. The message is clear; Yemenis are to stay home, and to use personal protective equipment (PPE) when they are outside. As a traditional bara’a drummer, Mulatif has received criticism as well as praise for his approach, with some Yemenis complaining that he deviates too far from traditional Yemeni practices in his innovative way of promoting social distancing, like organizing a wedding dance on the roofs of the old city of Sanaa. 

In yet another cultural-based initiative, Yemeni men sing a COVID-19 themed zamil, a poetic rhyme historically used by tribes and poets, usually to express solidarity or communicate demands. In this zamil, the poet warns Yemenis to refrain from qat chewing, normally a social activity in which friends gather, to prevent a “corona” crisis.   

In a further video, Yemeni men are seen chewing qat and singing about the effects COVID-19. For Yemenis, lyrical and metaphorical messages resonate much stronger than any public service announcement would. In this way, Yemenis deploy one traditional expression of heritage to temporarily deter another cultural practice, all in the name of public health.  

For Yemenis, gallows humour and satire, or zabj, is a historical coping mechanism in the face of adversity. Now, they are increasingly utilizing their traditional zabj humour in the battle against COVID-19. In one example, videos emerged lamenting that the lack of social distancing was due to Yemen’s record of zero COVID-19 cases at the time. A satirical video, popular across Yemeni social media, joked about how the country, currently in the midst of monsoon season, is still a far better place to be than Europe. In this way, traditional Yemeni jokes are spread through the new medium of social media apps like WhatsApp and TikTok, to combat a very modern pandemic.   

For civilians in Yemen, COVID-19 is a threat to all, which has the potential to bind the country together against a mutual enemy. Zaydi Shia and Shaf’i Sunnis, northerners and southerners, young and old, all face this common enemy. It is time for Yemenis to restore their faith in their threatened culture, strengthen and instrumentalise the risk of COVID-19 as a unifying issue. Yemeni communities facing existential threats rely on cultural heritage as a way to persevere through periods of adversity, and there has never been a more important time to support Yemenis in their efforts to build on their heritage with the purpose of modernizing it.  Now is the time to avoid division and blaming foreigners, instead focusing on strengthening social cohesion. The positive elements of Yemen’s culture can support resilience and reiterate the need for Yemenis to pursue education and seek access to information, which will inhibit the impact of misinformation and indoctrination and retard the spread of this deadly virus.