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

Executive summary
In line with the long list of experiments of utopian socialism, Awra Amba is a community in the
Amhara Region (Ethiopia) built on humanist values, which are implemented through its life style.
This study is a review of the available literature on this community, i.e. mainly of four Ethiopian
master reports (Atnafu, 2005; Yirga, 2007; Yassin, 2008; Mekonnen, 2009) and secondly of
Ethiopian and foreign news reports and accounts between 2006 and 2012. In a first step, we present
our own methodology, i.e. the sources we used from a critical methodological point of view, then the
numerous data collected, allowing us to draw a quite accurate picture of this original experiment. We
try then to compare it quite systematically to the Amhara society.
The community was founded by Zumra Nuru in 1972. From his first years, this visionary from poor
peasant origin rebelled against injustice, ill-treatment and dishonesty he was observing in his own
family and around him in the traditional Amhara society, patriarchal and believing in God. He
travelled in the region in order to find people sharing its ideas. Finally, he gathered around twenty
people who established the peasant community of Awra Amba on around fifty hectares. But the
neighbours were outraged by the fact that the men, women and children of Awra Amba had the same
rights, and by the absence of religion in the community. A disturbed period followed with jail for the
leader and exile at several hundred kilometres for several years. The community started again in
1993 on its present location and began to expand.
The data given by the various authors allow us to reconstruct the evolution of its population, going
through a minimum of less than twenty people during exile to more than 400 now. We compare its
composition per sex and age bracket with the neighbouring rural population of South Gondar. We
describe the different administrative structures to which belongs Awra Amba, in terms of main
geographical, demographical and economic characteristics.
In Awra Amba people share a strong culture and ideals, which differentiate them from the Amhara
society and the neighbouring villages, and above all they shared common values: To live in Awra
Amba means to share and to defend these values. The main values cited by the various authors are
honesty, equality and especially gender equality, solidarity between human beings, work and absence
of religion or rationalism. We examine each of these values as concept, in the way they are supported
by the Awra Amba community according to the literature.
Then we present the various aspects of the social organisation of the community, which is especially
developed: the community structures, the economic activities, then the social relationships, through
the gender equality at work, marriage, divorce and family household design, the specific and original
situation of children, solidarity with the most fragile, funeral, and finally the management of internal
conflicts.
In terms of institutions, Awra Amba is organized in two structures: the community which gathers all
the inhabitants who share same values and life style, and the work cooperative involving three
quarters of the community members. The main decisions of the cooperative are discussed and
decided in general assembly of members, which elects the members of about fifteen committees;
these committees are implementing the general assembly decisions and managing collectively the
various types of activities of the village. Women account for 44 % of the committee members, who
can be dismissed at any time.
The economy of Awra Amba is partially agricultural, but the available lands are much smaller than
those in the region: between 0.2 and 0.4 ha/household at Awra Amba according to the author, but
2.1 ha/household in the region. The main agricultural productions are tef, maize (or sorghum) and
beans, as well as products from a small livestock. The yields are higher than regional ones by around
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