Yemenis were part of the Aksum Kingdom and the guy who ruled yemen and the Yemenis around the Prophet's birth was Abraha the Habash. Most of them Yemenis are dark and have similar lineage to many east Africans. Ironically, they were considered the true Arabs. Arabs were dvided into two: The Arabs and The Arabized. The Descendants of Prophet Ishmael are Arabized and Quraysh are among those descendants while Yemenis are their own set of Original Arabs.
Anyway, being arab can be subjective sometimes and one only needs speak the Arabic language as a first language to qualify being Arab, such as the Sudanese dark Africans. And funny enough, Somalis fail to qualifiy even for that category of being Arab for lacking Arabic mastery as a first language
Something sad for some to be obsessed with ethnicity they are not. I am cool with defending all things Arab as brothers both in religion and culture. We just need to clarify the distinction between them and Somalis ethnically. Arabs are the people who would understand a Somali person perfectly for our close cultural relationship.
It is obvious:
- We speak Somali
- We look distinctly Somali
- We fail to blend in as black arabs because our language would betray us and we are Ajamis(non Arabic speaking people).