Page 19 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

6 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

There were, however, nascent political forces at work within the colony of a
very different kind, whose influence was to prove far more significant in the
long run than that of the Aden Association. Because the Aden Association was
dominated and controlled by the richer Adeni families, Adeni Arabs from
lower down the social and economic scale were virtually excluded from politi­
cal activity. They found an outlet for their political urges in the organization of
trades unions, whose introduction into the colonies had been the inspiration of
Sidney Webb (Lord Passfield) during his tenure of the Colonial Office from
1929 to 1931. Thereafter the fostering of trade union activity had become an
established feature of British colonial policy. The first trade unions in Aden
were organized in 1953 from among the white-collar workers, most of them
Adeni Arabs. The great majority of manual labourers and artisans in Aden
came from outside the colony - from Somaliland, from the protectorate states,
and from the Yemen - and as a group they lacked any natural cohesion. Not
only were they divided by ethnic and sectarian differences but their presence in
Aden was a transient one: most of them returned home after working in the
colony for two or three years. Such political interests and loyalties as they had
were directed towards their homelands and their own tribes and hereditary
rulers.
Little or no political leadership or support for these migrant communities
was forthcoming from the Yemenis, protectorate Arabs and Somalis long
settled in Aden. They, and more particularly the wealthier merchants among
them, identified themselves and their futures with the colony: they had
become, or were on the way to becoming, Adeni citizens, with little or nothing
in common with the immigrants. It is doubtful in any case whether the migrant
communities would have accepted their leadership. The transient Yemenis
were themselves divided by tribal affiliations, diversity of origin and religious
particularism, being either Shafi or Zaidi Muslims. Il was much the same with
the Arabs from the protectorates. Most of the leading merchants in Aden who
had originated in the protectorates came from the Hadramaut. The protec­
torate Arabs, who came from dozens of tribes in the protectorate states and
who acknowledged a wide assortment of shaikhs and sultans as their rulers,
would have rejected any suggestion that they look for leadership to the
Hadramis. There was, therefore, a political vacuum in the large immigrant
community, and it was this vacuum that the young and politically ambitious
Arabs from the middle ranks of Adeni society moved to fill.
In the elections held in 1955 to fill four seats on the legislative council the
franchise was restricted to Adeni and Commonwealth citizens, which meant
that Adeni Arabs and most Indian and Pakistani inhabitants were entitled to
vote but not the Yemenis or the majority of the protectorate Arabs and
Somalis. The result was a foregone conclusion: three Adeni Arabs put up by
the Aden Association and a Somali who had the Association’s blessing were
elected. A more interesting feature of the elections was the surfacing of a