V Radio and television, on which much tribal poetry can be heard, are also important channels of government propaganda. But the government cannot control the market place. When, in the late 1970s, the poet Al-Gashami openly deplored the assassination of President Al Hamdi and strongly implied his successor was responsible, he was imprisoned for several months. But his poetry could not be suppressed. The ability, or lack of it, to express oneself in verse can be a matter of life and death.
Poetry is also an important element in dispute mediation.
A war erupted between the religious elite and the surrounding tribe to which the girls belonged. This event was unprecedented because the religious elite are technically under tribal protection. I was in the sanctuary at the time of the abductions, busily collecting poetry that I began to notice was on the subject of the dispute. I saw outside my window the arrival of mediators, who were chanting verse exhorting the tribe to negotiate with the religious elite. The tribe responded with its own poems explaining why it felt it to be necessary to cleanse the stain on its honour.