Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Al Muhamasheen, the Untouchables of Yemen..

By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jumpsuits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town.

They are known as "Al Akhdam" - the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of the Yemeni social ladder.

Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead; their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian Army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam. More...

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