Posted in: Yemen Observer
Written By: Raghda Gamal
Article Date: Feb 14, 2009
Mr. Ahmed Jaber Afif, who has devoted his life spreading Yemeni culture, has now been officially recognized. Afif is one of Yemen’s great men and has written a great deal on Yemeni history. For his lifetime’s efforts the Yemeni Authors and Writers Union honored him last Thursday February 12, in the Culture House (Bait al-Thaqafah) in the presence of the Culture Minister, Dr. Mohammed al-Maflehi and many Yemeni thinkers and leaders.
During the honoring, Culture Minister Dr. Mohammed al-Maflehi, talked about the activities of the Al-Afif Cultural Foundation and the Yemeni encyclopedia as a great success for Yemeni literature, he then awarded Mr. Afif the Culture Ministry’s armor after a number of different speeches from Mohammed al-Qaood and Abdul-Barry Taher.
Afif was born in 1928 in the district of Bait al-Faqeh in Al-Hudaidah governate, he obtained his first schooling in Bait al-Faqeh’s Kutaab and to complete his studies he traveled to stay with his older brother Abdullah in Al-Hudaidah, then on to Sana’a. He started to work as a teacher in Al-Hudaidah governate and he followed steps in education management to work as a Knowledge Manger then Inspector at the Knowledge Ministry.
After the 26th revolution he worked as the Vice Minister of Health then as Ambassador to Lebanon and Syria at the beginning of 1963. He was the head of Burnings Company twice and became Minister of Learning and Education in 1969, in this role he supervised Sana’a University and the Yemeni Research and Studies Center built in 1970.
More than once he stood as a Member of Parliament and member of the consultative council and was also the Head of the Iscan Bank and head of the Anti-Qat association.
According to him, his best accomplishment and the one that made him the happiest was the establishment of the Al-Afif Cultural Foundation which is a non-governmental and non-profitable foundation dealing with science and knowledge, which aims to spread cultural innovation in Yemen; its enjoys a weekly culture program which takes place on Tuesday’s.
He also said he was proud of the yet to be completed idea of the Ma’areb Publishing House. Afif has written two books during his lifetime, the first was The National Movement in Yemen, which sought to describe the political changes effecting Yemen and the second, Witness on Yemen, Things from Memory. He was also mentioned in Ali al-Muqry’s book entitled Out of the Flock.
The Culture and Tourism Ministry honored Afif as Culture Character of the Year 2003, and Afif has an array of credit certificates from different organizations. Afif has accomplished a great deal for Yemen and it was not only the Authors and Writers Union that honored him this time but Yemen’s cultured people, this was made clear in the poem by Mohammed al-Ghurbany which was written to praise Mr. Afif and was recited during the honoring ceremony.
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