In 2010, French
researcher Robert Joumard published an article entitled Awra Amba,
an Ethiopian Utopia. He wrote: «The
Ethiopian village of Awra Amba is a well established community with a
truly extraordinary life style, especially in terms of equality
between men and women, community spirit, absence of religion,
honesty, hard work, democracy and even ecology».
Although a Utopia -
literally - is a non-existing-place, Awra Amba can be reached, and
pretty easily too. Everybody had heard of it at Bahir Dar's bus
station: in order to get there, I was told, I simply had to take a
minibus heading to Debre Tabor. That is what I did one sunny July
morning: as I got on, the minibus quickly left the city and after
about one hour, the driver dropped me off by a rusty post.
From that point, I had to
walk for two kilometres, which I did chatting to a kid and an old
man. The latter turned out to be Sisay, one of the founders of the
community; he is 96 years old and still working as a farmer.
Once in the village, I
was welcomed by a young guide, Asnake, as visitors are not allowed to
roam freely in Awra Amba. It
reminded me that, in Thomas More's masterpiece, foreigners need
the help of a local guide to reach the island of Utopia, navigating
through the perilous submerged rocks that surround it.
The guided tour starts
from a hall where the visitor is introduced to Awra Amba's history
and values. Handwritten posters explain the simple, although
ambitious, vision underlying the community's everyday life.
I was also handed a
two-page summary, written in English. I have copied the text here below and
divided it in paragraphs, adding short titles and comments to each:
The founder, Zumra Nuru,
and his four basic principles
Honorable Doctor Zumra
Nuru is the founder of the Awra Amba Community. When he was six
months old, he started to walk. At the age of two, he began speaking
and asking questions with the ability of an adult person. At the age
of four, he discovered four basic principles: respecting women's
equality, respecting children's rights, helping people who are unable
to work due to health problems or ageing, and changing bad behavior.
Zumra Nuru, now a seventy
year old charismatic leader, was born in a Muslim family in Semada,
a district in the South Gondar Zone of the Amhara State. His
community is based on humanistic principles and its members are not
followers of any religion; nonetheless, the description of his
superhuman childhood presents him as an almost mythological
being.
Zumra Nuru's parents
His mother and father
were farmers. On the farm, they worked together. In the evening, when
they returned home, his father was done for the day. But his mother's
work continued in the house. His mother's duties were cooking wot
(traditional sauce), baking injera (traditional pancake), collecting
firewood, fetching water, nursing babies, washing his family's
members feet, grinding grains by hand etc. These house tasks were his
mother's regular duties. Even if she worked around the clock, she was
not able to finish all of the house work. If she did not finish
something on time, his father would insult, curse at and sometimes
beat her. When he observed this situation, he couldn't tolerate what
was going on. He said “House work was only her duty, nobody's else.
Farm work was shared between my mother and my father. The children
who lived and were cared for in the house were both of their
children. Why didn't my father help my mother with the house work
when she helped him with the farm work? When she failed to accomplish
all those house duties and farm work, why did he beat her? Does my
mother have extra strength? Why didn't my father at least wash his
feet by himself?” When he examined life outside his family he
realized that it was exactly same in other families.
This is the first of four
paragraphs in which the origin of the above mentioned four principles
is traced back in Zumra Nuru's childhood experiences.
Children exploitation
Children at the age of
three or four would be given work beyond their capacity. When the
work was not done properly because of their inability to do it, they
were told off. Without considering their capacity to do the work,
they would be physically punished. At that time, he started asking
questions why this was happening to children. “Aren't they also
human beings? Why are they given work beyond their capability and
then punishing them?”
People with ageing and
health problems
He observed people who
were unable to work and who would fall on the ground because of
ageing and health problems. The people who were able to work and to
support themselves enjoyed eating, drinking and laughing with one
another. But nobody was thinking about the people in need. He said
“These people are human beings just like we are. They also need to
eat and drink as we do. However they have no capability to work. If
we ignore them, who will come to their help? If we leave them behind
when they need us, then perhaps in the future we may also be in their
situation. When we are old and sick, we will need people to help us.
As we will need help from others, why don't we help those who are in
need?”
The basic concept (indeed
a revolutionary one for the traditional Ethiopian society in the
1970s) is that women, children, the elderly and the sick are human beings
like men, with the same rights.
Conflicts
He saw and heard
people insulting, cursing, lying, stealing, snatching, beating and
sometimes killing one another. When we do to others what we don't
want to happen to us, what is it that differentiates us from animals?
If we don't think to our relatives, and if we do bad things to our
relatives, what makes us better than animals?
The reaction of his
parents
When he was promoting
his principles his parents said, “You don't like [how?] other people
think. You don't want to do what other people do. If you are already
like this now, we don't know what you are going to do in the future.
We don't think that you are doing these deliberately; so you must be
mentally ill.” When they told him he was mentally ill, he started
doubting himself if he really had a mental problem. But he couldn't
figure out his illness. All he said was let us trust, collaborate,
cooperate with one another, so how is he ill? Being considered he was
ill, he stayed with his parents for many years.
First attempt to get out
of intellectual loneliness
When he turned
thirteen, he was desperate to meet some like-minded human beings. To
satisfy his desire, he decided to go and find people that might share
his ideas. Hoping to find such individuals, he traveled to Gojam,
Wollo and to Gonder and spoke about his ideas with the people in
different social gatherings away from his parents for about five
years. When he did this, even if people didn't say he was mentally
ill unlike his parents said him, they said: “What is this child
saying? He has big ideas but who would ever put them into practice?”
He couldn't find people to accept his ideas. He wished that he could
get people to hear him out or at least ask him what he had in mind.
But he couldn't achieve either.
Back to the village
He decided to return
to his home village and became a farmer, like his parents. They
thought that he was mentally ill because he had traveled from place
to place on his own. When he eventually asked them to find him a
fiancée they said if he was thinking of marriage, then he must be
cured from his madness. They soon found a fiancée for him and he got
married. He thought he would find peace within himself if he shared
his harvest with elderly people or those who are struggling with
health problems. When his parents saw him giving his harvest away to
those in need, they said to him he hadn't been cured after all; the
disease that he had caught could not be healed. They said that he
didn't eat and drink well or wear good clothing. He was giving it
away to non-relatives.
Universal brotherhood
He asked them, “Among
us human beings, whom do you consider a relative and whom do you not
consider a relative?” For him, everyone is equal. Nobody can decide
whether they are black or white. Making someone black or white is the
task of the creator. Being black or white is not only for us humans
but also for other creatures. Humans originated from Adam and Eve,
and we all stem from the same root. Then, how can human beings not to
be related? As he asked this questions, he was told that he was
unable to distinguish between relatives and non-relatives because he
was mentally ill. They said that after seven successive generations
you are no longer related. He said, “Who decides the moment when
humans are no longer related after seven generations? When you reach
the seventh generation, who says you will no longer be related?
Humans have created the idea that we are not related if we are not
from the same family. This notion brings about hostility; and
hostility brings about fight. Human beings frighten other human
beings just like ferocious animals. I thought that if we could live
by considering all human beings as sisters and brothers, there would
not be any difference or hostility among human beings.”
From ostracism to the
foundation of a new community
When he realized this
discrimination among human beings, he felt lonely. He was ostracized
by the community due to his unique ideas. He couldn't live in such
isolation. He still believed that he would be able to find people who
would accept his ideas. He began travelling again during the dry
season, returning home in the rainy season. He spent several years
traveling. Then, one year, he was traveling from his village to
Gondar and he came across some farmers in Fogera district who
listened to him. When he realized they shared his vision, he kept
going back to them several times to discuss his ideas with them in
details. He thought that if he went there and llived with them, his
wish might come true. So he left Estie district and went to live in
Fogera district in 1972 with these people. This is when the Awra Amba
community was established.
The rights of women
The first concept
Zumra and his friends discussed was about respecting the rights of
women. Woman in her femininity is a mother, and a man in his
masculinity is a father. As they become mother and father. Why did
the woman become a nursemaid and man become a commander? If this is
because of physical strenght, let us use this strenght to work. If
there is no mother, there is no father either. If calling women our
wives gives the impression that they are distant relatives, let us
call them our mothers. Therefore, woman and man (mother and father)
both should have equal rights.
The eradication of
conflict
The second topic of
their discussion was how to eradicate conflict from the world, and
how they can bring about peace and paradise on earth. The people who
listened to his ideas asked him how conflict could be eradicated. He
replied that conflict has no root. Conflict is the product of our
imagination. Instead of imagining conflict in our mind, let us
imagine love. The causes for conflict are bad speeches and bad deeds.
We don't like it when someone does something wrong to us, so we
should also avoid bad speech and bad deeds. If we live in such a way,
conflict will not exist.
Achieving peace on earth
The next question his
friends asked him was how we could bring about peace. He answered
that peace can be achieved when the human race treats each other as
brothers and sisters. If someone has a problem, all of us should lend
our hands to solve that person's problem. This will make that person
happy. Seeing someone feeling happy is our wealth. We should share
his/her happiness. When we live harmoniously and act lovingly with
one another, we feel delighted. Having created delighted life, we
will bring about peace. If we bring about peace, we can bring about
the paradise we want to have. Bringing about paradise is what we do
before death. After death paradise cannot be created. Avoiding
conflict and bringing about peace cannot be expected to descend from
the sky. We have to make the effort to achieve this when we are
alive.
Putting ideas into
practice, facing hostility
As the result of their
discussions his friends agreed on the ideas that he brought forward.
The members made a promise to put these ideas into practice. When they
started practicing their shared principles the people that resisted
their ideology became obstacles for them to move forward. Even if the
antagonists tried to harm them, they continued struggling to reach
their ideas to educated people. Who do they mean by “educated
people”? They mean academic intellectuals or religious leaders.
They decided to sacrifice their life, until the educated people would
hear their concepts, because when educated people hear and believe in
an idea they will raise it. As time went on, the neighboring people
continued their antagonistic hostility towards Zumra and his friends
and they reported them to the Derg regime, the ruling government in
Ethiopia at that time, claiming that they were members of “woyanie”,
the rival front of the Derg regime. Thus the Derg regime decided to
assasinate us.
The first community was
made up of 66 individuals. In 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was ousted
by a military coup and power was seized by the Derg [committee], led
by Colonel Menghistu Haile Mariam.
Escape and death
This resulted in us
having to flee our village in Februray 1988. We went down to the
southern part of Ethiopia, Bonga. When there is migration there is no
occupation; when there is no occupation, there is no money. At that
time we had nothing to eat, nothing to drink and we had no money for
medicines or treatment when we were sick. During this period we lost
most of our members and we buried their bodies under bushes. Despite
this difficult circumstance, we were determined to continue our goal
to reach educated people with our ideas.
A difficult return
In August 1993, we
returned to our original place of residence, Awra Amba. When we came
back, we found our farmland was occupied by nearby farmers. We
applied to the Woreda [district],
Zone and regional administrative organs in ordere to get our farmland
back. The Woreda administration gave us only 17.5 hectaresof land to
reside on. We didn't get enough land for agricultural purpose.
As a result we had no
source of revenue and we suffered from starvation and disease. During
this time, a large number of our community members died. At last we
realized that we could not live only by farming, that we had to take
up something else to survive. We decided to shift our focus to
weaving.
Colonel Menghistu had been
overthrown in 1991 by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic
Front.
The most striking aspect
of the story so far is the unity and determination of the community,
despite the terrible experiences its members had to go through; in
1993, the community was reduced to about thirty people.
A childhood dream comes
true
From 1972 to 2001, we
struggled to share our ideology. But in 2001, many journalists
started coming here and they disseminated our ideas in different
media. One of the most successful dissemination of our idea to the
Ethiopian people was broadcasted on a local television channel called
Amhara TV in 2001.
Spreading Honorable
doctor Zumra Nuru's basic principles throughout the country allowed
him to achieve one of his childhood visions, which was to find people
interested in his ideas. He missed this at the beginning of his
childhood. Since then, his dream has been to make people curious
about his ideas and to get them to put this ideas into practice. Even
if the people are not yet practicing the ideas, people are interested
in them. In the last decade many people throughout the world heard
about his ideas through different media such as magazines, journals,
radios, televisions and the Internet. This is the first step for him.
Getting human beings to know about his basic ideas is only the
beginning. Those we are talkingabout are what we are practicing.
Levels of membership
In the Awra Amba
community there are two level of membership. One is Community Member
and the other is Cooperative Member. The difference is that community
members live either in Awra Amba or in other places by sharing and
disseminating the values, principles, rules and regulations of the
community to the areas in which they live. On the other hand
cooperative members all live together in Awra Amba and work
communally, whether they are strong or weak in order to bring about
holistic economy, love and peaceful developments.
514 people are now living
in Awra Amba. 167 of them are Cooperative Members; they work eight
hours per day and they all get the same wage, regardless of the job:
farmer, weaver, shopkeeper, driver and so on. They can earn extra
money by working in their spare time. It is up to the cooperative
members to decide if an applicant is to become a new member, after a
probationary period. The community membership is open to anybody who
shares the values of the community, but, due to lack of land and
jobs, only a very small number of people asking to move to Awra Amba
are accepted each year.
The five fundamental
ideas
The Awra Amba
community lives according to Zumra Nuru's five ideas that are put
into practice. These include the equality of women, respecting
children's rights, caring for those who are unable to work due to
ageing or health problems, avoiding bad speech and bad deeds (doing
things to others which you would want done to yourself and not doing
to others what you dislike to be done to yourself), accepting all
human beings as brothers and sisters regardless of their differences
and living in solidarity with everyone.
The charity fund
The Community Members
have a fund called “Lewegen Derash”. This fund is meant to
support people who are unable to work, for treatment of sick people
who have no money, for providing educational materials for children
and the like. The purpose of Lewegen Derash is reaching out to those
who face serious problems and to provide them relief from that
problem.
It is interesting to note
that people unable to work are helped regardless of their age.
Achieving peace through
dialogue
Twice a month, the
community members participate in a family discussion about peace. The
agenda for the discussion includes for instance how to divide
household tasks or family activities, or how to avoid bad speech and
bad deeds. The family discussion are a key tool to bring about peace
and development throughout the world by discussing and solving
problems at the family level. We believe that peace can be created
all over the world if everyone participates in family discussions.
Time for a comparison:
how many steps towards equality and peace the European societies have
taken so far? Quite a lot, I think, in the twentieth century, and we
must be proud of them. It is obviously much more difficult to achieve equality
in a large country than in a small village. Still, other steps have
to be taken to reach full respect of women, children and fellow
human beings in general. Peace is at the heart of Utopia, and peace is
not everywhere in European societies, workplaces, schools, families.
Marriage rules
In the community
marriage shall be entered with the full consent of the couple at the
age of 19 or above for females and 20 or above for males. There is no
wedding ceremony to mark the marriage. The couple continues their
usual work activities. Therefore, no time or economy is wasted.
Before marriage the female and the male should abstain from having
sexual relations. After marriage neither the husband nor the wife
should have any other sexual partner except the spouse.
The guide explained to me
that community members can marry non-members from outside, but in
that case the couple will be allowed to live in Awra Amba only if the
spouse accepts the values of the community.
Religious belief
The Community believes
in the existence of one creator that created the sky and the earth,
night and day, female and male, air, sun and all the creatures that
exist on earth. Our belief is conveyed by good deeds. Therefore we
live by doing good deeds to people and avoid doing bad deeds. The
community practices the golden rule: Do unto others as you would
do unto yourself.
Grief, happiness and
death
In the community every
person shares the grief or the happiness of any other individual. The
community tries to fulfill the needs of a person in his lifetime as
much as possible. If someone is ill, we do the best to find ways to
make him/her heal from his/her illness. If a person dies despite our
best efforts to try and heal him/her people may burst into tears. But
there is no extreme mourning period. While enough people attend the
burial, the remaining community members will support the family of
the deceased to help them forget their grief. After the burial
ceremony, the family of the deceased will go together with other
people to their regular work place. This is done to make them forget
their grief. At this time, the mourning ceremony ends.
I asked to a senior
representative of the community what happens to a member of the community if he/she does not follow the rules of the community concerning the religious belief or the sexual behaviour before marriage. If someone in the community does not follow all the rules of the community - I was answered -, he/she will not be regarded as a community member. If his/her act opposes the values of the community, he/she will be advised to return to the former community from which he/she came from.
I posed another question:
is there room for a change of these rules in the future? Yes there is - the reply was -. If, through discussion, we find values or ideas which are much better for the well being of mankind than those that we have now, we can replace them by the best ones.
Is life in the village
coherent with the principles of the founders? I cannot answer because
I only spent two days there and saw what I was showed by the guide. I
would say the community looks peaceful; there is no distinction
between “male” and “female” jobs, children are not exploited,
kids go to secondary school and about twenty people got a degree,
eight elderly people are cared for in a specific building, a lunch
break is enjoyed by everybody.
Anyway, it is not easy to
distinguish between a community's wishes and reality. A
comprehensive analysis of the community's life – with its
contradictions - can be found in the above mentioned Joumard's
article.
An update is perhaps
necessary: alcohol, cigarettes, khat and even coffe are not allowed
in Awra Amba because they are considered addictive and there is no
apparent trace of consumerism; nonetheless, a youg man told me about
his addiction to social networks. I wonder if they will be banned too
and, if so, how.
When I was in Awra Amba,
the electricity was off; apparently, it happens quite often. At eight
o'clock in the evening, some people were still chatting in the dark
room of the small café. In a few minutes, everybody went home; I
spent some time in the alleys of the village, alone, in the dark.
Very peaceful.
