Calls for a change in the status of southern Yemen, ranging from greater autonomy to outright independence, are becoming increasingly vocal. However, there is also dissonance among these voices. In Hadramawt, formerly part of the British East Aden Protectorate, there is talk of secession not only from northern Yemen, but also from the south. This position is promoted by a loose coalition of interest groups in Hadramawt and in Saudi Arabia under the banner of the Hadhrami Forces League. Secessionists invoke the illegitimate occupation of Hadramawt by FLOSY forces in 1967 and betrayal by the British administration, who colluded in the annexation of Hadramawt by South Yemen as they withdrew from Aden. Both the British period and the communist period are now viewed with some nostalgia as the central government hands out Hadrami land to northerners and appropriates oil revenues in return. Secessionists in Saudi Arabia claim that an independent Hadramawt, with a properly managed economy and free from the corrupt practices of northerners, would rapidly develop and become a candidate for GCC membership, unlikely propositions for a unified Yemen in the foreseeable future. Political and economic discourse promotes the view, widely held elsewhere including in Hadramawt itself, that the region would be more prosperous as an independent state; but affective discourse is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where exclusionary citizenship rules have constituted a group of Hadramis, many of whom raised or long-term residents in Saudi Arabia, who are not entitled to Saudi citizenship. However, Hadramis have much in common with Saudis that northern Yemenis do not share, and as a result maintain social and cultural characteristics that members of the Hadrami diaspora elsewhere may have lost. As a result, Hadramis in the kingdom, excluded from full civic participation as Yemeni passport holders, cultivate a nostalgia for an idealised homeland where their belonging is not contested. At the same time, however, an independent homeland within the GCC would allow them to maintain their Saudi affiliations. This paper, based upon fieldwork in Riyadh and Jeddah as well as in Hadramawt, looks at the social and cultural background to expressions of Hadrami identity among members of the Hadrami community in Saudi Arabia and suggests that, particularly among the older generation, the cultivation of nostalgia allows for the construction of an authentic Hadramawt that is closer to their Saudi imagination than to Yemeni reality.