Quick Review: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes

Victoria Clark – Dancing on the Heads of Snakes

In this brief but relatively in-depth study of Yemen, Clark splits her book into two complimentary sections. In the first half, she examines the country's history from the mid-16^th century to 2000, highlighting its complex tribal structure and religious groups. The consistent failure of occupying forces, including Egypt to Britain, to subdue the entire Yemeni population figures prominently as Clark describes the independence of two Yemens: the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; North Yemen) and later the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY; South Yemen) – the only Marxist state in the Arab world. From the 1960s to 1991*, the two countries were governed in entirely different ways, with the latter aligning with the USSR and the former joining the non-aligned movement (and even joined in a federation with Nasser's failed Pan-Arabism experiment, the United Arab Republic ). Indeed, while the PDRY formed a frightening secret police with East German assistance and attempted to eliminate tribalism in all its forms, the YAR exploited tribalism by bribing the well-armed tribes into submission and creating vast networks of corruption and patronage. Under President Saleh, who became president of the YAR in 1978, the two Yemens united as the USSR collapsed and the wealthier, more populous North essentially took over the oil industry and land previous beholden to South Yemen.