The experience of Yemeni revolutions and fellow citizens’ disillusions in Ahmad Zayn’s Qahwa Amirikiyya

Aḥmad Zayn’s Qahwà Amīrikiyya is a novel set at the beginning of the 1990’s in Sana’a, and follows the story of ‘Ārif, the novel’s main character. ‘Ārif, a young man who studies English at the British Council, is the symbol of the Arab citizen who fights to reach his revolutionary dream. He also could symbolize those millions of Yemenis, or Arabs, who have suffered and paid a high price for their revolutionary ideas, just to discover, at the end of those revolutions, that they are nothing but victims of personal interests and weak ideologies. The novel begins with the main character wishing to spit on Gorbachev’s photo, who, somehow, represents the failure of Socialist ideology in the Arab Homeland. One day, the hero accidentally becomes involved in a demonstration. That involvement becomes the sole subject of discussion with his colleague ‘Ālya, with whom he will later fall in love. ‘Ārif seeks to prove to her how brave he is by telling her fake stories about his glorious and dangerous past, as ‘Ārif’s target is only to get a place in the country’s history and to gain ‘Ālya’s respect. It is as the author is trying to answer to some bothering questions: did we really undertake revolutions in the name of masses needs or only for personal purposes? Are revolutions an occasion to change history or to be remembered by future generations? Considering the thawrat al-shabàb (Youth Revolution), as 2011 Yemeni demonstrations have been named, our question is: have Youth’s expectations been satisfied? After paying a big price in terms of lives and sufferings, is Yemeni history changing, according to their will, or did somebody “steal” the revolution from young Yemenis? Even if Qahwà Amīrikiyya has been published in 2007, when nobody could imagine what has happened in Yemen, specifically, and in Arab world, in general, it results to be a novel that provides food for thoughts on the very recent Yemeni history.