Nationalism and Social Media of the Southern Movement

The article evaluates how actors in Yemen's secessionist Southern Movement utilise social media and digital communications to construct a separate South Arabian national consciousness in opposition to the Yemeni identity. The article traces the history of the North/South Yemeni split into the modern crisis, and how the split transformed from a matter of competing legitimacy into one of self-determination. Southern Transitional Council (STC) media builds a national consciousness and assumes a 'primordial' South Arabia. This is done through creating a national narrative from historical events associated with South Yemen, the monarchies preceding South Yemen, and specific diction choices. Specific case studies are evaluated in demonstrating the South Arabian nationalist influencer model. Ultimately, this work finds that social media figures associated with the Southern Movement reflect this specific line of nationalist reasoning by claiming South Arabia as a natural nation-state under Yemeni occupation.