Soqotra: South Arabia's Strategic Gateway and Symbolic Playground

Abstract

This article undertakes a critical retrospective of the symbolic appropriation process through which Soqotra was constituted as an imaginative geography, embodying the strategic desiderata of states as well as the ideational fantasies of men over millennia. The island's location on the threshold of continents (Africa and Arabia), and on a cardinal node on the sea-lanes linking the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and beyond, subjected its internal dynamics to the maelstrom of events in the larger world. Moreover, its physical isolation endowed it with an endemic biodiversity that has spurred reveries about the lost Garden of Eden, and made it a coveted haven for a mosaic of human aspirations. The article examines the strategic interests pursued, and the appropriating discourses deployed, by the European powers vying for political and economic hegemony at the different historical periods surveyed here: Antiquity, Portuguese, British, Soviet and the recent adoption of a United Nations-brokered environmental regime for Soqotra. Finally, it draws out the ramifications of this strategic entanglement and symbolic appropriation process on Soqotra's estimated 50,000 inhabitants at the present historical conjuncture.

Exploring the historical distribution of Dracaena cinnabari using ethnobotanical knowledge on Socotra Island, Yemen

“…It was a very important tree in ancient times due to a historically highly prized product called dragon's blood, a red resin extracted for a wide range of uses including coloring and local medicine [ 39,48 ]. Some believe that the name Socotra could even be a derived from "Sukkatira" or contracted from "suq qatra", where suq is the Arabic word for "market" and qatra for "dragon's blood" [ 49,50 ]. The rst who mentioned D. cinnabari resin was the unknown author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea around mid-rst century AD, who called it "cinnabar" [ 51 ].…”

A Spectre is Haunting Arabia

“…37 | Ibid., in: Yodfat, 1983Cigar, 1985, 781. 38 | On the strategic relevance of Socotra at the time see: Elie, 2006, 151ff. 39 | Agafinov visited Socotra several times (1976-1980), Agafinov, 2008Elie, 2006, 152.…”

“…38 | On the strategic relevance of Socotra at the time see: Elie, 2006, 151ff. 39 | Agafinov visited Socotra several times (1976-1980), Agafinov, 2008Elie, 2006, 152. 40 | Yodfat, 1983110;Agafinov, 2008.…”

Exploring the historical distribution of Dracaena cinnabari using ethnobotanical knowledge on Socotra Island, Yemen

“…It was a very important tree in ancient times due to a historically highly prized product called dragon’s blood, a red resin extracted for a wide range of uses including coloring and local medicine [ 39 , 50 ]. Some believe that the name Socotra could even be derived from “Sukkatira” or contracted from “suq qatra,” where suq is the Arabic word for “market” and qatra for “dragon’s blood,” which means “drop” related to the dropping of the liquid resin pieces from the stem of the plant before drying it [ 55 , 56 ]. The first who mentioned D. cinnabari resin was the unknown author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea around the mid-first century ad , who called it “cinnabar” [ 57 ].…”