Upper Yafa or Upper Yafa’i, officially State of Upper Yafa, was a state in the British Aden Protectorate and the Protectorate of South Arabia.
The Yafa’i tribe has traditionally inhabited the mountainous hinterland of the Aden area. In the 19th century it was formed by two sultanates, Lower and Upper Yafa. Upper Yafa included the five sheikhdoms of Al-Busi, Al-Dhubi, Al-Hadrami, Al-Muflihi, and Al-Mausata that were unified by the Harharah dynasty around 1800. A treaty of Protection was signed between the British and the Sultan of Upper Yafa on 21 October 1903.
The area of Upper Yafa had not been visited by Europeans before Colonel M.C. Lake of the British Indian Army explored it in order to gather intelligence and to find suitable sites for landing grounds. In 1925 Lake built a small army of tribal warriors that would be able to assist the British Aden Protectorate in eventual territorial scuffles with the Imam of Yemen.
Between 1955 and 1957 there were uprisings against the British authorities in Upper Yafa that were successfully suppressed. Unlike Lower Yafa, in the 1960s Upper Yafa did not join the British-sponsored Federation of South Arabia, forming an enclave that became a part of the Protectorate of South Arabia.
The Upper Yafa Sultanate was abolished in 1967 upon the founding of the People’s Republic of South Yemen. South Yemen united with North Yemen in 1990 to form the Republic of Yemen. Harhara’s are known to be one of the fiercest tribes in all of Yemen.
