Slavery in Yemen () was formally abolished in the 1960s. However, it has been reported that enslavement still occurred in the 21st century.
Chattel slavery in Yemen was abolished in two stages between 1962 and 1967. The 1962 revolution in Yemen led to the abolition of slavery by the government in North Yemen, but slavery in South Yemen was not abolished until the socialist National Liberation Front (NLF) took power when the British left in 1967.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 352 Al-Muhamashīn are descendants of the former slaves.
Yemen is in Arabia, and is a mostly Arab country. Yemen is considered a developing country, and has been in a state of political crisis since 2011. It was reported that at least 85,000 people were enslaved in Yemen in 2022, and due to the impossibility of conducting further surveys in the midst of the ongoing civil war, this number may be underestimated. The Houthis have been accused of restoring slavery in Yemen.
Not unlike previous times, slaves are inherited by their owners through family, as well as being bought and sold. The slaves are under complete control of their owners, an example of this being that although sometimes the slaves are allowed to marry one another, they are not allowed a ceremony, and are only allowed to see each other during an emergency or at night when their owner does not require them. In a sense, slavery has been formally recognised in Yemen, through a judge in the Courts confirming the transfer of a slave from one owner to another. This caused an outcry by the community and the media, which allegedly was quickly hushed up by the government.
History of slavery
Historically, the institution of slavery in the region of the later Yemen was reflected in the institution of slavery in the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).
Slave trade to Yemen
The Red Sea slave trade appears to have been established at least in the 1st-century, when enslaved Africans from the Horn of Africa were trafficked across the Red Sea to Arabia and Yemen.The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. (2023). Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. 143
In the Middle Ages, the majority of slaves appeared to have been of African origin, but there were also enslaved people of other origins, such as Indians, Europeans and Turkish people, as well as an illegal enslavement of Muslim Arabs despite the fact that Islamic rules banned the enslavement of other Muslims.Moorthy Kloss, M. (2023). Slavery in Medieval Arabia. In: Pargas, D.A., Schiel, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13260-5_8
A tribute of 1000 slaves were annually sent from the Dahlak Archipelago to Yemen, made up of what appeared to have been Nubian or Ethiopian slaves. In the 12th-century, Muhammad al-Idrisi trafficked African children from present day Kenya to Arabia, and a slave trade is confirmed to have taken place from present day Somalia to Aden in Yemen at that point. During the 13th-century Indian boys, as well Indian women and girls intended for sex slavery, were trafficked from India to Arabia and to Egypt via Aden.
In the 13th-century, Ibn al-Mujāwir, traveler in Yemen, recorded a graphic description of the procedures on the slave market of Aden:The slave girl is fumigated with an aromatic smoke, perfumed, adorned and a waist-wrapper fastened round her middle. The seller takes her by the hand and walks around the souk [market] with her; he calls out that she is for sale. The wicked merchants appear, examining her hands, feet, calves, thighs, navel, chest and breasts. He examines her back and measures her buttocks in spans. He examines her tongue, teeth, hair and spares no effort. If she is wearing clothes, he takes them off; he examines and looks. Finally, he casts a direct eye over her vagina and anus, without her having on any covering or veil. When he has examined, expressed his approval and bought the slave girl, she remains with him for about ten days. When [the buyer] has taken care of her, had his fill, become bored and tired of her and got what he wanted from her, his lust is at an end. Zayd, the buyer, says to ʿAmr, the vendor, "Indeed, sir, we have a case to settle in court!" So they attend in front of the judge and one makes a claim against the other, [suggesting there is] a defect [in the slave girl].Yemeni Rasulid sources mention that Abyssinian concubines and eunuchs brought to Yemen were Jazli, Amhara and Saharti (Tigrayans). Habesha slaves were priced at roughly twice the value of Zanji slaves.
These Habesha mamluks often rose to positions of power in Yemen. The Jazli seized power from the Ziyadids and established the Najahid dynasty, Faraj al-Saharti and Surur al-Amhari ruled successively as Wazirs of Zabid between 1133 and 1157 and other Habeshas participated in the state as military leaders such as Ishaq bin Marzuq al-Saharti.
In the 1760s the Yemeni Hadhrami Arab Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie mass enslaved other Muslims while raiding coastal Borneo in violation of sharia, before he founded the Pontianak Sultanate.
In the 19th century, slaves were exported from the Eritrean and Somali coast to Yemen. In 1876, large numbers of slaves were reportedly being exported from the Somali port of Zeila to Hodeida in Yemen.Administration Report of Aden for the year 1876-77, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/10/553/8, p. 3. A French traveller writing from Zeila in 1881 noted that most of the slaves found there were Oromo women captured as prisoners of war. French explorer Edmond Combes found what he described as "a large number of Oromo slaves" in Yemen. In the 1850s, the Afar people from the Eritrean and Djibouti coasts bringed Oromo slaves to Mokha. Slaves were also exported from Massawa to Mokha and Hodeida, according to the British Captain Haines:"The slaves are brought from Mussowa to Mocha, Hodeida and Jedda, in native boats under red colors, when they have again to pay an import duty of one German Crown per head, and an export duty of half a German Crown. I have seen as many as 2 and 300 a month arrive at Mocha. On landing they were immediately placed within a compound, unclothed, from whence they were driven to a well for water, twice a day, like a flock of sheep, their food consisting of jowaree cake and some sugar-cane."By 1900, although King Menelik of Ethiopia had outlawed the open trade in slaves in Ethiopia, Oromo slaves were still being sold in large numbers in Yemen.
In 1869 the Royal Navy was enforcing a ban on slave trading in the Gulf of Aden and intercepted over 100 Galla slaves that were illegally shipped to Aden from Berbera. Soon after more slaves were discovered at Siyara and Lieutenant Colonel Playfair with the steamer 'Lady Canning' implored the Makahil elders to surrender the slaves. Upon their refusal the Lady Canning would open fire shooting deliberately near the important fort of Siyara. This act of intimidation led the elders to oblige and free the slaves held in the area.Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial, Industrial and Scientific: Products of the Mineral, Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures, Volume 5, p.425
The port town was later on described as being under the possession of the Habr Je'lo:The last branch of the Western tribes is the Haber el Jahleh, who possess the seaports from Seyareh to the ruined village of Rukudah, and as far as the town of Heis. Of these towns, Kurrum is the most important, from its possessing a tolerable harbour, and from its being the nearest point from Aden, the course to which place is N.N.W., consequently the wind is fair, and the boats laden with sheep for the Aden market pass but one night at sea, whilst those from Berbera are generally three. What greatly enhances the value of Kurrum however is its proximity to the country of the Dulbahanta, who approach within four days of Kurrum, and who therefore naturally have their chief trade through that port.
Function and conditions of slavery
The function of slavery differed depending on if the enslaved person was male, female or a eunuch.
Female slaves
Women were primarily enslaved as harem concubines (sex slaves) or as domestic house slaves. The female slaves owned by women could be used for a number of domestic household chores, while women owned by men were exploited sexually and used as both sex slaves (concubines) as well as entertainers.The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. (2023). Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. 149
In the early Middle Ages, there were also a minority of slave girls who were trained to become qiyan artist courtesans or slave singing girls. This custom was still ongoing in the 12th century, when the female slave artists performed in public in front of a male audience, and were essentially prostituted by way of frequently being sold from one male client to the next.The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. (2023). Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. p. 145
Many of the Imams of Yemen were the sons of slave-girls,Mackintosh-Smith, T. (2011). Yemen. Storbritannien: John Murray Press. and this custom continued until the 20th century. In the 1960s, the King and Imam of Yemen, Ahmad bin Yahya (r. 1948-1962) were reported to have had a harem of 100 slave women.LIFE - 19 feb. 1965 - page 98
Male slaves
Eunuchs were the most expensive slaves. In the Middle Ages they mainly came from Africa and underwent the dangerous operation in Ethiopia before being imported to Yemen. Eunuchs were bought by aristocrats and royalty and could be given a number of different assignments: as administrators and agents of the affairs of the harem and royal women, as teachers and caretakers of children, and as supervisors of the rest of the slaves.
Male slaves who were not eunuchs were employed as laborers or as slave soldiers (Mamluks).
Mamluk soldiers were introduced in Yemen during the Ziyadid dynasty (818-981). From the 9th-century onward they were a permanent institution in Yemen; initially the Mamluk soldiers were of Ethiopian, Nubian and Turkish origin, but during the Rasulid dynasty (1229-1454) onward they appear to have been of primarily Turkish ethnicity thus provided from the Bukhara slave trade.
Activism against slavery Part of Yemen was controlled by the British Empire in the 19th- and 20th-century. The city of Aden formed the Aden Settlement (1839–1932), Province (1932-1937), and Colony (1937–1963), while the hinterland formed the Aden Protectorate (1872-1963), Federation of the Emirates of South Arabia (1959-1962), Federation of South Arabia (1962-1967), and Protectorate of South Arabia (1963-1967); Aden joined the Federation in 1963.
When the League of Nations was founded, they conducted an international investigation of slavery via the Temporary Slavery Commission (TSC), and a convention was drawn up to hasten the total abolition of slavery and the slave trade.Miers, Suzanne (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. USA: AltaMira Press, pp. 100-121 Aden admitted in their report to the Temporary Slavery Commission (TSC) of 1924-1926 that there was still chattel slavery in Yemen.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 101 The 1926 Slavery Convention, which was founded upon the investigation of the TSC of the League of Nations, was a turning point in banning global slavery.