A Literary Mission

Günter Grass, the 1999 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was thrilled by Yemen: “This mixture of wonderful landscapes and wilderness and then again fertile valleys. Everywhere the remains of old and preserved culture. And then the people, the openness in the faces, the individuality in the faces, those are all things that go against the image, that we have adopted from fundamentalists -- as if it were a hostile mass, as if a war of cultures were taking place. That is absolutely not the case,” enthused Grass.

Allah and Günter Grass

Yemen is one of the world’s ten poorest countries and Günter Grass wants to do what he can to support the Arab nation. It won’t be easy, seeing as Yemen is considered the center of operations for Al-Qaeda. Still, Grass is in favor of exchange. And no one has ever seen him behave like this: excited, even euphoric, as he dances through Yemen’s capital Sana'a. A welcoming cry, “In the name of Allah -- welcome Günter Grass,” rings out from a mosque. And, as if he were the highest guest of state, Grass is courted and showered with every thinkable honor.

Standing up for freedom of expression

Grass' 12-day visit to Yemen however did not pass without incident. A small scandal erupted when the host, President Ali Abdallah Saleh, was about to bestow the Republic of Yemen’s highest honor on Grass. The writer suddenly violated all the rules of protocol. He interrupted the president and made a plea for an author who left Yemen because he felt threatened: “I know that there is a court verdict against this author and against this book. But Mr. President, court verdicts are one thing. In the long run, literature has a longer life.”

Despite the snub, Grass actually went down well with his unsparing openness. As a guest he can express things that the local artists aren’t able to say. The politically active German writer speaks from experience: “I used to experience the same thing in the Eastern Bloc countries. When I was invited somewhere, I addressed things that they couldn’t express.”

Taboo topics

Some Arab writers see the German delegation’s visit, however, as patronizing and lecturing. Three days long Grass spoke with Arab authors, self-proclaimed Islamists among them. As Grass declared that you can be both a friend of the Arabs and a friend of Israel, hostile heckling and angry protest ensued. Anti-Zionism belongs to the fixtures of Arab rhetoric, particularly among intellectuals.

Grass also called for the separation of church and state and for an open discussion about eroticism and sexuality. He wanted to speak openly about the body, about pornography and blasphemy but met with protest. The discussion went back and forth. Still, the dialogue was a success and bore fruit: Yemeni and German writers will soon start an exchange through the Literary Colloquium in Berlin.

Guaranteed return

Grass plans to return to Yemen for a conference about the problems of reunified countries. Yemen too was reunified in 1990. Until then it had been divided into north and south. In some respects, Grass is told, the unification was better realized there than in Germany.

Grass’ journey to Yemen did certainly show one thing: Yemen is not just the state without justice and law, as it is sometimes portrayed. On the contrary, it is a magical and magnificent country to travel in with an old culture that created buildings belonging to the seven wonders of the ancient world. The state of Yemen shouldn’t be reduced to being a base for Al-Qaeda fighters. And Günter Grass will be beating his drum from now on for the West to finally take notice of the country.