Lesson 9: Yemen

This week music class is taking itself far off the beaten path–south of Saudi Arabia, to the southernmost part of the Arabian peninsula, to visit Yemen. Colonial powers have sought to control Yemen for centuries because it sits at the intersection of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, an essential thoroughfare for international shipping. Yemen has a fascinating multi-tribal culture that one would also think would attract international travelers, but Yemen has never had great financial resources to develop a tourist infrastructure, and it also has an unfortunate tradition of tribal, religious and political in-fighting that occasionally devolves into internal struggle.