The Tihama Slave Trade: Yemen's Forgotten African Diaspora

This episode explores a largely overlooked chapter of Yemeni history: the centuries-old slave trade across the Red Sea from Africa to the Tihama coast. Lucas and Luna trace how enslaved East Africans — mainly from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan — were brought through ports like Mocha, Hodeida, and Zabid, and integrated into Yemeni society as laborers, soldiers (including the famous 'Abd al-Rahman's Ethiopian guards), and even concubines. They discuss how the trade differed from the Atlantic slave trade, how it overlapped with the coffee and pearl economies, and how abolition in the 20th century unfolded differently under Ottoman and Zaydi rule. The episode also touches on the lasting legacy: the Afro-Yemeni communities of the Tihama, known as the Akhdam or Muhamasheen, and their struggle for recognition today. Specific figures include the early 20th-century abolitionist Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghali and the Ethiopian slave-turned-general Luqman al-Habashi. This is a story of coercion, survival, and a cultural fusion that still echoes in Yemen's coastal dialects and music.

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