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

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Awra Amba, a current experiment of utopian socialism What are the incomes from these different activities? Atnafu (2005/82) states an annual income per cooperative member of 134 birrs for farming and 180 birrs for weaving, without doubt in 2004. In addition, weaving on a private traditional loom at home yields 120 birrs per family and per year. For a couple of cooperative members, it would give about 750 birrs a year, around 75 Euros. According to Jo10b/5, the annual income of a cooperative member was in 2009 3000 birrs, 168 Euros. This income was increasing, but was yet lower than those of the neighbouring farmers. Yassin (2008/104) lastly states an income of 1005 birrs per year and per person, around 70 Euros at the average exchange rate for 2008. This income was higher than the regional average income, which was 840 birrs per person. However, the report does not clearly state if it is an income per inhabitant or per adult, neither if the average income concerns only the inhabitants of the rural zones. This same author gives the average annual income per household in 2006 per source type and gender of the head of household, but does not specify the number of adults per household: it does not allow comparing these figures to the other evaluations. It allows nevertheless evaluating the overall incomes per source (subject to error of interpretation of the table of Ya08/107 whose units are not clear): - 69 % for the cooperative, - 12 % for the private craft, - 10 % for the annual crops, - 8 % from credit, - 1 % from beekeeping. The average annual income per household was then 3417 birrs, around 270 Euros: it was close to the figure we give for 2009, but much higher than estimated by Atnafu. Figure 9: Trend of dividend payment made yearly to members of cooperative from different activities, in thousand of birrs, acc. to Yassin (2008/108). All these figures seem therefore inconsistent and questionable. Moreover, we have to take into account the collective income which provides for welfare, education and village management, as well as the value of the services made voluntarily by the members (help elderly etc.), which are not included in the personal incomes, but which contribute a lot to the well-being of the population, and which are, to a very great extent, specific to Awra Amba. 48 / 85
4. Social organisation Yassin (2008/108) shows furthermore the evolution of the incomes distributed to all cooperative members from 2001 to 2007, but coming only from weaving and milling: see Figure 9. In 2007, the traditional weaving corresponded to around 67 % of the whole activity of the cooperative, the modern weaving to around 28 %, and the milling to around 5 %. The weaving activity only started really in 2006. Finally, the members of the Awra Amba community assure their food needs are fully covered all along the year, whereas two thirds of the Amhara peasants cover their food needs only for nine months a year, 2.5 million people being affected by chronic food insecurity, and 3 million are hungry almost every year (among 19 million inhabitants) (Ya08/96 and 101). The community remains nevertheless poor. Some young members have left it, without doubt for economic reasons (At05/84). 4.3. Equality between men and women at work As stated by At05/2, all societies practice at least some division of work between men and women. Williams (1993) states that women or men who do not comply with this division of work are suspected not to be "real women" or "real men". The movie of Stine (2012/52-54') gives for instance an illustration of that in the lower Omo Valley in southeast Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, women work more than men: the women work in average more than 13 hours a day, but the men less than 13 hours a day (Habtamu et al., 2004/47 and 57). In Awra Amba, woman's inferior position in the economy was abolished by destroying the traditional division of work based on sex (At05/81). Women contribute to the expenditure of their household on an equal footing with men, and fulfil their own economic needs without depending on their husband; they have full control over their income (At05/83; Ya08/105). A woman of 40 years said (At05/81): "I participate in the economic activities of the community on the same level as my husband. I share equally as my husband. We both equally support our family without depending on one another." Picture 11: Female and male water carriers back from spring, in 2010. Of course, women are not battered for mistakes in their work (At05/80). Here women rights are respected, whereas in the rest of this poor country, traditions and traditional practices are followed, not the law. Melkenesh Seid, one of the women living in Awra Amba is happy with this situation. She said: "Being a member of Awra Amba means I am respected within the family and treated as an equal. I am able to claim my rights and if I am no longer happy in my marriage, I know than if I divorce, I get 50 % of our property." (France 24, 2009) This gender equality is general and starts at the youngest age. We have seen there are no genderbased games (Yi07/60); at school, the Awra Amba male students prepare tea and so show to other students this kind of work is not restricted to females (Yi07/79). However, is the equality real? 49 / 85
Page 1 and 2: Robert JOUMARD Awra Amba, a current
Page 3 and 4: Content Executive summary..........
Page 5 and 6: Executive summary In line with the
Page 7 and 8: Executive summary secretive, cruel,
Page 9 and 10: አጭር መግለጫ የሥራ
Page 11 and 12: des membres des comités, qui sont
Page 13 and 14: Introduction The Ethiopian village
Page 15 and 16: 1. Method This work is a synthesis
Page 17: 1. Method final conclusions of Meko
Page 20 and 21: Awra Amba, a current experiment of
Page 33 and 34: 3. Values and principles Any societ
Page 35 and 36: 3. Values and principles in an atmo
Page 37 and 38: 37 / 85 3. Values and principles ph
Page 39 and 40: 39 / 85 3. Values and principles ea
Page 41 and 42: 4. Social organisation We describe
Page 43 and 44: 4. Social organisation - The lost m
Page 45 and 46: 4. Social organisation the table: Q
Page 47: 4. Social organisation 20 birrs), a
Page 51 and 52: Women (%) Adults Men (%) Women
Page 53 and 54: 4. Social organisation that "the co
Page 55 and 56: 55 / 85 4. Social organisation (3.7
Page 57 and 58: an electric meter according to the
Page 59 and 60: 4. Social organisation twelve small
Page 61: 4. Social organisation institutions
Page 71 and 72: 6. External relations The relations
Page 73 and 74: 6. External relations Picture 18: Z
Page 75 and 76: Conclusion Awra Amba has developed
Page 77 and 78: 77 / 85 Conclusion limits strongly
Page 79: experiments? Conclusion - Most of t

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

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