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

Awra Amba, a current experiment of utopian socialism
4.4. Family
The family is one of the pillars of the social organisation. We describe it below through marriage,
divorce and homestead building.
4.4.1. Marriage
Traditionally the boy has not even known what his bride looks like until the wedding itself (Levine,
1965/101). This practice is still prevalent in the rural areas of the region. The parents play an
important role in the choice of the partner of their son or daughter and carefully inspect the families
of potential partners of their child. Once the marriage is decided, the two families enter in
competition in preparing costly feasts for the occasion, in order to show their social status. The boy
who dares to choose a wife on his own commits an offense for which the father has the moral right to
curse and disinherit him. Marriage is regarded as a bond between families, not between individuals
(At05/46-47).
In the Amhara region, the median age of the first marriage was 15.2 years for women aged 20 to 24
in 2005, slightly higher than 14 years for women aged 25 to 44, and 13.6 years for women aged 45 to
49. Girls marry therefore very early, especially in comparison with other Ethiopian peoples like
Oromos, to the south, who marry around 3 years later (EDH, nd). Early marriage is especially
frequent in the rural zones according to a study quoted by Ya08/80. As immediate effect, girls drop
automatically out of school. In the longer term, psychological problems occur because of their
loneliness, whereas they should be at school and play with their friends (IPS, 2010). In 2005,
Ethiopia recognized early marriage harms young girls, and set the minimum age of marriage at 18
years (IPS, 2010).
The median age for the start of sexual relations of women is slightly higher than the median age of
the first marriage: it highlights the importance of virginity for the girls. Finally, 22 % of the men are
polygamous (CSA, 2006).
In Awra Amba, marriage is the business of the young people, without the parents playing any role
according to At05/41 & 79 and Yi07/48, with little or no intervention from ascendants or close
relatives according to Me09/38. Nearly 98 % of the adults interviewed by Ya08/80 assert marriages
are established by the agreement of the partners, without any interference of their families. Yirga
(2007/48) states moreover, quoting Zumra, the families should approve the union of their children in
view of the formalities. It appears therefore that interference of families is the exception, the parents
being only informed about the union of their children, who are financially and materially responsible
for their couple (Yi07/49). The community approves the marriage after three to five older people
have verified the minimal age of the young people and their agreement (awraamba, nd).
The couple's parents can give them gifts (At05/41; Yi07/49). But the dowry system and other
property arrangements have been abolished. There is no wedding ceremony, contrary to Amhara
custom (At05/81), because it is considered as a waste of resources. The community members also
never participate in wedding ceremonies of other communities (Yi07/49). The prestige of a wife does
not depend on the social status of her husband (wealth, leadership, membership of a management
committee of the community, education).
The groom and the bride both live either with the groom's parents or the bride's parents, until they
have built their own house (At05/41).
Over the last 25 years, the taboo of incest, which prohibits any consanguine marriage till the 7 th
generation in the Amhara region, has been eased to 4 or 5 generations, in order to deal with the lack
of opportunities of exogamous partners according to At05/41: the people from outside the
community are little attracted by a life in the community whose culture is very different, and the
neighbouring communities ban any marriage with an Awra Amba member. Zumra stated (Yi07/50)
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