Digital Reification: Yemen, South Arabia, and the Aspirational State

Abstract: Yemen's civil war prominently featured southern secessionists holding large parts of the country. Southern secessionists desire a separate state called the "State of South Arabia". This paper examines how the memory of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) is transformed into a legitimising point for the secessionists' desired nation-state despite the PDRY's Yemeni national character. This paper introduces social media as a form of performance, which allows for negotiation and consolidation of national identity. I analyse forty cases across TikTok and X to demonstrate national performance on social media and identify three shared themes in pro-South social media: (1) the primordial nationhood of South Arabia, (2) Yemen as an occupier, and (3) historical symbols as symbols of a South Arabian state. I conclude that performances through social media can be used as part of identity consolidation even if a nation-state is unrealised or not internationally recognised.