Houthis in the Making: Nostalgia, Populism, and the Politicization of Hashemite Descent

During the autumn of 2012 the Hashemites (sāda) of a hijra I will call Kuthra, located southwest of the capital Sanaa, gradually rephrased their identity in political terms. Over the course of one year, most of them turned into Houthi supporters, prompting an equal and opposite reaction in the Qaḥṭānī Arabs of the village that defiantly adhered to the Islah party. Drawing on extended fieldwork in highland Yemen (2009–2013), this paper tackles identity politics by examining the subtle interplay of life and family stories, modes of livelihood and social institutions in a ‘glocal’ world.By exploring the family stories of two young sāda, the article argues that the rapid and unprecedented social and material changes that interested Kuthra during the last century laid the groundwork for nostalgic representations of a lost past. Building on this emotional foundation, Houthi discourse provided a political narrative capable of orchestrating nostalgic feelings into a coherent life project, thus providing a powerful tool for identity politics.