Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

Awra Amba, a current experiment of utopian socialism
fundamental need rather than a means to meet his needs (At05/48). It is not absolutely compulsory –
and therefore alienating, but voluntary, made for its own benefit and for the community good. To
work within its capacity is a moral duty. Everyone is engaged in work assigned to him or what he
think is good for the community (Yi07/54). The person who neglects his work responsibilities or
who is inefficient in his work does not get the respect of his followers. Absence from work, even for
good cause, brings even to feeling of guilt (At05/50, 51 & 55).
The value of work – any work, for all – is contradictory with traditional values such as division of
work based on sex, patriarchal authority, subjugation of women and observance of public holydays
according to religious rules, whose irrationality is so highlighted (At05/49). It is then one of the ways
for criticising religious rites and obscurantism, in favour of a more rational approach of existence: it
makes work a value close to rationalism.
Therefore, every adult community member must work, with exception of the infirm elderly, the ill
and the women close to childbirth. All works are equally valued and no task is attributed according
to sex or age considerations as such, but only according to personal capacities (At05/50). Except the
New Year, which is in Ethiopia the 11 th of September – or the 12 th September in Leap Years, the
Awra Amba members do work every day and therefore do not observe any other public or religious
holidays (Ya08/73; Calvino, 2009).
All members of the cooperative spend five days a week doing communal work, with nine hours a
day, till 5 pm (At05/80). The community members spend in addition one day a week helping the
elderly, the ill and the needy and for maintenance. It is "development day", on Tuesday. Everyone is
free to work for themselves outside these working days. The villagers can spend the seventh day of
the week as they please. Usually, they go to market, wash and clean, or collect wood. This day off is
Wednesday the first week and Saturday the next week (Jo10b/6).
All in all, then, the Awra Amba inhabitants work a lot: work is an essential value of the community,
considered as a mid and long term investment.
3.4.3. Rigorism?
The extreme emphasis of work, for all adults and all over the year, leaves little room for leisure and
pleasure: life is a too serious thing for privilege immediate pleasures. It is therefore a quite austere
community, where besides euphoriants like coffee or alcohol, there is little room for gambling or
dancing, neither for sex outside marriage (At05/42 & 58). There is no coffee ceremony as it is
regarded as a waste of time and a stage for backbiting (Yi07/52), while this rather long ceremony is
important in Ethiopia, whose national drink it is. It is for the foreigner, especially, a great experience
of sensuous pleasure.
This rigorism does not seem to apply to children, who have the right to play and do play, sing and
dance.
Moreover, the studied literature does not show that effort is valued through the value of work: it is
nowhere explicitly mentioned. However it is questionable to what extent work and effort are
associated.
This rigorism, tinged with puritanism and asceticism, is maybe better understood when we know
that, for some neighbours, Awra Amba has the picture of a community where all is collective
property, including women and children (Ya08/118). The value of work and the rigorism are
therefore also means to give a good picture of the community: we can imagine even more harsh
criticism of neighbours confronted with a community which wouldn't observe any religious rites,
work few and party...
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