Hadhramaut Research Centre website now online

www.hadhramautresearchcentre.com 

FOREWORD

For centuries, Hadhramaut has played a significant and influential role in the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and at present, Hadhramis have migrated to other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, to Africa, the Indian sub-continent and to South East Asia. In all these regions, Hadhramis have played an important and significant role in many fields – in Society, in the Economy, in Politics, in Culture and Religion and in their Intellectual Development. This important role played by Hadhramis is recognized in all these areas. Indeed migration has had a critical impact on Hadhramaut itself.

In fact, Hadhramaut plays an important role in the regional and international political map. In recent time, it has played two contradictory roles in Yemen since the 1960s:it has contributed to both stability and instability in Yemen. Without either of these two roles the National Liberation Front (NLF) would have failed to build a state or have attracted a union with North Yemen which was run by tribal leaders. Thus, Hadhramaut gave both the two regimes (North & South) the required ingredient for some form of stability after the (1994) civil war. At the same time, Hadhramaut’s economic resources and geo-political significance were the main motive for the competition between tribal forces before and after forming the unity government as well as in the current transitional government. Consequently Hadhramaut is an important cause of instability in Yemen.

This situation has created a great deal of depression and hopelessness amongst the youth of Hadhramaut accompanied with loss of identity and a feeling of being foreigners in their own land. This partly explains the fact that many of them have joined radical movements, which is the adverse face of the normal peaceful and pious Hadhrami personality. In fact, the Yemeni identity has never been acceptable by the Hadhramis. This, in turn, has particularly brought about sensitivity and even animosity against the Hadhrami identity in both the North and the South of Yemen. This resulted in an inclination to control and humiliate this Hadhrami identity by both the past and the present regimes. This has clearly seen in the behaviour of the people from the Yemeni State who and have settled in Hadhramaut.

For a long time, Hadhramis had lived a stable life, which created in them discipline and obedience to the state and law. The Hadhrami community, therefore, could not adapt to the situation of confusion and where laws are ineffective and failed to protect them. This situation of confusion which is normal in North Yemeni tradition, was brought to Hadhramaut by the Northerners who controlled the State in Hadhramaut.. The newcomers, therefore, took power of the local authority, the army and the police and that made them unjustly control the key issues in the governorate such as job opportunities and local resources. In effect, they have used all the resources to make profit for the leaders of these bodies in the north at the expense of the people and the environment in Hadhramaut.

With respect to security, Hadhramaut has never been a military threat to anyone. The persons in charge of security and military forces in Hadhramaut, therefore, played unprofessional roles by contributing to increasing the financial earnings of various political, military and tribal leaders and sharing the profit with them.

In spite the feeling of insecurity, the Hadhrami community failed to form their own defensive organisations to counter the failure of the regime in providing the necessary security precautions to protect the citizens and institutions. This made Hadhramaut a haven for both armed and radical elements.

Hadhramaut has, therefore, encountered two dilemmas: firstly, a rise in poverty and lack of development due to the resources being controlled by northern tribal armed forces. Secondly, a decline in the civil personality of the Hadhramis which made radicalism an increasingly attractive choice to the youth.

Consequently, the tribal armed forces' behaviour and practice of exploiting Hadhramaut resources for themselves and over which they constantly fight each other, has led both the  Hadhramis as well as the central state- the south or the unified Yemen- to prolonged the state of instability. This has created in Hadhrami society a situation which encourages the rise of radical movements attracting the Hadhrami youth.

The idea of the Research Centre

The basic idea for establishing this centre is to have an academic institution to study all important aspects of Hadhramaut and its Society so that Hadhramis are provided with detailed knowledge on different aspects of their society, knowledge which will consequently encourage them to assist their homeland and improve their social welfare. This is intended also to help decision makers locally (private or government), regionally and internationally to place the Hadhrami culture in its appropriate position by exposing the peaceful and positive cultural qualities of Hadhramis. This is hoped also to strengthen ties with the Hadhrami societies in the diaspora towards serving their ancestral homeland. The centre will specifically endeavour to work in three directions: training, research and community services.

Training: The centre will offer postgraduate programs for the degrees of High Diploma, Masters and PhD in various fields that relate to Hadhramaut the Yemen and the Hadhrami Diaspora.

Research: The centre will set up research projects about Hadhramaut and the Diaspora focusing primarily on society, economics, politics, history and anthropology.

Community Service: The centre will undertake two major tasks: the first is to establish an incubator for social initiatives so as to encourage establishing effective civil society organisations particularly in human rights and environmental issues. This will allow further participation of the civil community in various matters relating to Hadhramaut.

The second task is to support tertiary vocational institutions in Hadhramaut.

Establishing the centre: 

A steering committee has been formed to establish the centre. Its members are:-  

- Professor Abdalla Bujra Al Nahdi (Lamu, Kenya)

- Professor Leif Manger (University of Bergen, Norway)

- Dr. Saddiq Maknoon (Al Ahgaaf University, Fuwah, Mukalla)

- Mr. Muhammad Bin -Dohry (London, UK)

The Steering Committee’s responsibilities: 

1. Ensuring the establishment of the Centre.

2. Forming of a Board of Trustees.

3. Looking for sources for funding the Center.

4. Preparing the bases of the Programmes in the three main areas: training, research and    community service.

5. Creating the necessary contacts with organisations that will assist in establishing the centre.

 Organisation:

The centre is an academic research institution which is hosted by Al-Ahgaff  University in Mukalla. It will be financially and administratively independent and will be managed by a Board of Trustees and an Administrative Executive Committee.

Finances: The Steering Committee will work towards raising necessary financial funds for the centre from Hadhramis in the diaspora, foreign donors, and international organisations.

Operational start up:

The project initially requires the following:

- Offices with appropriate facilities.

- Administration staff

- Library

- Instructors

- Operational costs for the start up.

Provision of operational costs: 

1. Al Ahgaaf University will contribute appropriate temporary offices within the University’s headquarters in Mukalla (equipped with the necessary furniture and stationery) and one administrator, for a period of one or two years.

2. Instructors and Researchers: The principal requirement is suggested to be as follows:

- Full time Academic Dean to be head of the centre - Heads of departments (part time)

- Research Supervisors (part time)

- Instructors(paid hourly)

- Full time visiting professors for one semester or one academic year

3. The Library will be the backbone of the centre and will require manuscripts, publications, journals etc. which need to be purchased, subscribed or borrowed from other universities, libraries or other institutions.