Dispute resolution among its purposes Folklore of Zamil [Archives:2003/06/Culture]

BY MAHYOUB AL-KAMALI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
Yemeni tribes are still chanting folklore poetry which is known as Zamil. Zamil is a genre of folklore literature derived from the tribal poetic tradition sung in chorus. It is chanted during national festivals and marriage ceremonies. It is also used in order to make fun of opponent tribes.
Chanting Zamil signifies the strong unity of tribes to encounter the enemies or dangers that may occur.
Zamil had a very strong impact on diffusing enthusiasm among revolutionaries during the 26 September Revolution.
It was used also by opponent forces to discourage revolution supporters.
Today, the Zamil is closely related to the day-to-day behavior to bring peace and social security among people.
The folklore of Zamil in Yemen has its own set of rules and genres. It generally refers to folklore literature featured by poetry.
One of the characteristics of the Zamil is that it is not chanted using the first person singular. It doesn’t address individual or sentimental feelings. It is therefore, chanted in chorus and addresses a group of people depicting their issues, whether political, economical, or social.
It may include threatening lines, praise or satire to make fun of other people. As a result it should be chanted in chorus.
Strongly worded
Motazammel or chanters of Zamil should represent the situation of the tribe’s issue and express sentiments and feelings of the group as a whole.
In order to chant Zamil, a group of chanters have to line up. It has to be chanted during folklore festivals.
During Zamil, chanters have to carry weapons on their shoulders as a token of the unity of the tribe and its heavy burdens in front of tribal and tribulations.
Al-Harethi, a very well-known Yemeni historian, has divided Zamil into four vernaculars:
The first group depends on poetic meters such as Ragz or Saree. This kind of an art has been still found in al-Baidha, al-Awaleq, Farkha, and al-Awadel.
The second group is featured by clarity and eloquent. It can be found in Murad tribes, Baihan, Hada, Rada, Khowlan, and Taiz.
The third one is featured by using specific poetry.
This kind of an art is widely used in the east parts of Hadhramout, Jihm, Jeda’an, and Waela.
The fourth group is featured by the imitation of other goups’s Zamil. Different poetic meters are used. This kind of Zamil can found in the areas around Sana’a.
The well-known late writer, Abdullah al-Baradoni, in his book titled Folklore Literature in Yemen said that one of the main conditions of a well-spoken Zamil is that it should possess a metrical language and comprises close tunes.
The political and national Zamil is considered to among the best folklore art that is chanted during national festivals.
Of course, poets are not specialists, they only do what everyone of the population ought to do. Therefore, a tribesman does not compose purely for the sake of art.
His sensibility does not separate aesthetic expression from practical life, for every poem is at heart of political and social act.
The composition is in response to some actual concrete event that always has practical or spiritual import for the community.
Though one poet is responsible for creating the text, Zamil involves a chorus of men.
The Zamil performance may include poetry, instrumental music as well as song and dance. The dance, however, is not an obligatory element of the performance.
The poetic form of the Zamil poem is more interesting musical instruction.
The constraint of composition is compression, since the first line of the poem is usually set aside for recognizing the honor of the addressee. There remains only one line in which the poet can address the issue in question. Tenseness of expression is the rule.
At its best the Zamil is an aphorism, therefore, it can be said that there is less need for formulas in the composition of the Zamil.
In Zamil, poetry formulas are short, never more than three words and therefore, encompass only a fraction of the entire line.
Zamil has a much greater range of use in social context, being performed at the wedding, religious festivals, dispute mediations and the ceremonies of atonement.
The most important social context, in which Zamil poetry is composed is the dispute mediation, when a serious conflict breaks out between two or more villages, or two different tribes. Mediators usually arrive chanting Zamil poems.
Zamil performance presupposes tribal bonds of solidarity among its participants. In the dispute mediations, solidarity means one of steadfastness and resolves of the litigants as well as mediator in the face of conflict.
An important dialectic occurs between poetry and social action, for the Zamil both transforms the social context, through its association with the idea of solidarity and is in turn transformed by it.
To compose a Zamil poetry in accordance with the conventions of the poetic tradition is to have a power, to enter into a certain kind of discourse in which honor is created or defended by the poet and persuasion is exercised.

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