State-Community Relations: Political History Conjunctures

Abstract

This chapter reconstructs Soqotra’s historical evolution as a social formation that was driven primarily by a series of acts of political incorporation. These acts brokered Soqotra’s contact with the outside world and structured its internal dynamics as well as regulated the nature and pace of its change process. This process engendered a succession of forms of externally imposed sovereignty that was always claimed on behalf of, and never by, Soqotrans. This claim to sovereignty was based on relations between a peripheral island community and a political center located elsewhere. This constituted the crucible of the island’s historical transformation, as it set in motion the mechanism of change through the constant manipulation and restructuring of its social, political, and economic institutions as well as its cultural practices. The chapter narrates Soqotra’s historical trajectory as a transitional social formation through six conjunctures of political incorporation that it has experienced thus far. The reconstruction of each of Soqotra’s political incorporation conjunctures is done through a description of four vectors of historical change and social transformation: the catalytic events that led to the regime’s emergence; the political geography adopted for territorial administration; the structure and operational modality of communal governance; and the economic policy that underpins the development strategy. Finally, the chapter considers the likely outcome of the latest phase in Soqotra’s external supervision. In elucidating all of the above, this narrative simultaneously establishes the broad contours of the still unwritten modern history of Soqotra.

A very different version of this chapter originally appeared under the title “State-Community Relations in Yemen: Soqotra’s Historical Formation as a Sub-National Polity.” History and Anthropology 20 (4) (2009), 363–393. Reprinted by permission of the publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd. http://www.tandfonline.com.