University of GondarFaculty of Social Science & HumanitiesPostgraduate Program in Sociology

In partial fulfillment for the course of Gender, Culture & Society (SOCI 601): Assignment on the productive and reproductive role in Awra Amba community

Submitted to: Mesfin Dessiye (PhD Candidate, AAU)

Prepared by: Mengistu Dagnew

February, 2014 Gondar, Ethiopia Table of content

page

1.Background history a visionary man/ Zumura Nuru and Awra Amba

community……1

2.Awra Amba Community population……………………………………………………….3

3.Values and principles of Awra Amba community………………………………………...4

4.Productive and reproductive work…………………………………………………………5

5.Gender role in Ethiopia: productive and reproductive

role……………………………..7

6.Gender role in Amhara: productive vs

reproductive……………………………………..7

7.Gender role in Awra Amba: productive vs

reproductive………………………………...8

References ………………………………………………………………..11

1. Background history a visionary man/ Zumura Nuru and Awra Amba

community

Zumra nuru was born on August 23, 1946, in Simada Woreda in South Gondar

zone. At the age of four, he started wondering about the unfairness of the

gender inequality, the maltreatment of the elderly, labor exploitation, cruel

punishment of children, and dishonest dealings among people. When he was a

child, nobody can answer properly his questions on the reasons of such

behaviors. His extraordinary behavior being considered abnormal. His family

and his neighbors considered him not surprisingly to be mentally ill, not only

because of his support of equality between men and women but also because of

his opposition to institutionalized religion, in a very religious, traditional

and patriarchal Ethiopian society (Mekonnen, 2009:32).

"When I was child, I was furious about what I saw around me," says Zumra

Nuru. "I found it unfair that while my mother helped my father to sow and

harvest, he never helped her in the home. I swore to myself that I would

change things when grew up" (Joumard, 2010). "My both parents spent the whole

day in the farm but when they came back home, it was time for my father to

rest but never for my mother. After she has been through the same tiring day

as my father, she had to do everything at home. She was expected to cook,

clean the house, wash my father’s feet with warm water and serve the

traditional meal. On the top of that, when my mother could not do all that on

time, my father abused, insulted and sometimes beat her. I just wondered why

this had to happen to my mother, as if she had extra strength or something.

But I realized later that this was not an isolated event that only happened in

our house, rather it was happening in all families" (Joumard, 2010 quoted at

Habtamu, 2009; Mekonnen, 2009:31).

Zumura Nuru still remembers today one of the first times he questioned the

established rules, when his mother accused him of eating Christian meat at

their Christian neighbors. Zumra asked her why he was not allowed to eat meat

while the meat was similar to the meat they have at home. She answered,

“Muslims are not allowed to eat Christian meat and vice-versa”, snatched the

meat from him and gave it to the chicken. He was not at all satisfied with the

arguments of his mother and went on to ask questions: why, how, when and from

where does come this difference in food, since we are all human beings and the

meat comes from our animals. Zumra Nuru was more or less thrown out of his

family house (Crespo, 2011). He lived during five years indifferent places of

Amhara region: Debre Markos (Gojam), Simada (South Gondar), Sedie Muja

(Gayent, South Gondar), Feres Bete (Gojam), in the Fogera and Dera woredas

(South Gondar),Belessa (North Gondar) and Dessie (Wollo), therefore within a

distance of 250 km from Awra Amba. He was mainly weaver and helped the poor.

"I travelled to find people who would accept my ideas", he said (Halpern,

2010).

At the age of 18, therefore in 1964, he came back to the village of his

parents and asked his family to arrange marriage for him (Yassin, 2008:66). At

the age of 19, a quarrel arose with his immediate family members, since he

used his income for helping the poor and the elderly in the village (Mekonnen,

2009:33). He became a wandering preacher of his own ideals, travelling for

sharing his ideas and finding supporters. During the dry season, he went to

the neighboring villages of Yesho Michael, Shimie Mariam or Kechin-Wonz

Kidane-Mihret to spread his message of brotherhood, respect for women,

protection of children as well as special care for the aged and the disabled

people (Mekonnen, 2009:33). His long quest for a village capable of welcoming

his ideas was finally satisfied in Awra Amba, where he lives today. He found

here a group of people in agreement with him and ready to give him permanently

a home for creating heaven on Earth. After ten years of occasional visits to

the area and several short stays with them, he decided to settle here in 1972.

The community had at this time 66 households (Yassin, 2008:61).

At the beginning, the community was very small and therefore very tight-knit.

Zumra explains the agricultural produce was stored in a common store, the

cooking was done in a common kitchen, and meals were eaten in a common plate

(Atnafu, 2005:74) but their neighbors, Muslim or Christian peasants,

considered them as deviants or atheists. They denounced to Derg, the

government of that time, the members of the sect as supporters of the

Ethiopian people revolutionary party (EPRP), which was anti-derg party at that

time. Hence the Derg interrupted the creation of this association. Zumra

tried to bring together his followers into an egalitarian community, i.e. a

cooperative (so-called 'union' by references) (Atnafu, 2005:30), but the

people of the neighboring villages, 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, denounced it as opposed to the power. Then the Derg stopped

this project and required they found a primary-level multi-purpose farmers'

cooperative that was created in February 1986 by the 19 remaining members

under the name "Awra-amba Community Cooperatives' Association". Such a

cooperative paid his members in proportion to their work and not in an

egalitarian way as did want Zumra and his followers.

The relations deteriorated however and Zumra was thrown in jail on September

5, 1986 without charge and without trial, before being released after six

months, on February 30, 1987 during these episodes, the community declined

from 66 to 19 people, whom no one is able to read or write. In the final days

of the Derg regime, when they heard that Zumra could be jailed, even that

people from the nearby villages were planning to massacre them, Zumra and his

thirteen followers left their homes in the middle of the night on February 28,

1988 and walked to Bonga, avoiding settlements, in six weeks, or in only a

week by using also vehicles according to sources (Crespo, 2011; 2012However,

Mekonnen (2009/35) points out that the community delegated twelve out of its

members to go with Zumra, in order to make the travel easier and safer, and

therefore that a part of the community stayed in the village; Crespo (2012)

points out that less than twenty people left, but that about thirty died

during the travel. After the change of government in 1991, as the members of

the community, reduced to about thirty people (Joumard, 2010), had

difficulties in integrating Bonga society especially due to the difficult

local language – Kaffitcho, they came back to Awra Amba (Crespo, 2012). Zumra

came back firstly in 1993 with about ten people to prepare the settlement. But

people of the village who were not members of the community were opposed to

this comeback for reasons of way of life, but also of competition for land

usage (Mekonnen, 2009:36), because the community land had been taken by those

people who were against their life style. The members of Zumra community

struggled fiercely to get their land back and they finally succeeded by

contacting the local media, which put pressure on the authorities. They have

managed to get back only 17.5 hectares of land out of the original fifty or

sixty – not enough to feed their growing community. Most of other members,

about sixty, came back from Bonga six months later, in 1994 for establishing

the present community of Awra Amba. The community size from 1988 to 1995 is

therefore quite varying according to authors. The difficult situation with the

neighbors explains that the leader and founder of Awra Amba needs round-the-

clock protection by an armed guard due to decades of hatred and death threats

(Tervo, 2009).

Decisions are made in the village through democratically elected committees.

Harmful, traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and child

marriage have been abolished. Instead, discussions about human rights and

peace take place daily. Religious rituals have been abandoned, and no churches

or mosques can be found here. Instead, the community shows their faith in God

through hard work, peaceful behavior and respect towards all human beings.

Lately, Zumra has become a prominent figure in Ethiopia. He was recently

awarded an honorary PhD from the University of Jimma, for his contribution to

sustainable community development. Now people from all around the world make

the long journey to this little village to hear his story and learn about

their way of life ( http://www.visitAwra Amba.com/?page_id=3277 ).

2. Awra Amba Community population

Awra Amba was founded in Fogera Woreda in southern Gonder zone of the Amhara

Regional State. Currently, the Awra Amba population comes mainly from

different peasant communities of the Amhara region and is from various

cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds, although the majority are of

Muslim origin (Atnafu, 2005:28). The majority of the founders were originally

born, brought up and lived in and around Woji-Arba-Amba kebele, and especially

in both neighboring Woreda of Fogera and Libokemkem (Mekonnen, 2009:30). The

village of Awra Amba is a part of this kebele. It is located 13.7 km far from

Woreta, 68 km from Bahar Dar, and 630 km from Addis Ababa (Mekonnen, 2009:75).

According to habtamu .E (2009) research finding report currently, the

community has 403 members in 109 households, living over 17 hectares of land.

Of which 51 % members were female.

3. Values and principles of Awra Amba community

Awra Amba is a village strongly united by a culture and ideals, which make

them very different from the Amhara society and the surrounding villages. The

Awra Amba Community has its own rules and regulations. Formulated by Zumra,

the community has four pillars of rules/values for its society. These are

Gender equity; the right of children; solidarity/ the principle of helping the

less fortunate, ill and old; and honesty/the principle of discouraging

dishonesty, lying, murder and stealing(Habtamu 2009: 53)

With regards to the administration of the community, there are more than

thirteen committees whose members are democratically elected without a gender

bias thereby encouraging female participation in community governance. Village

committee’s work and advice on issues ranging from maternal health and

reproductive rights to community conflict resolution mechanisms. These

committees elected every three years in general assembly by a show of hands

(Atnafu, 2005:60-64)

Here what we have observed that women are equally participated in these

cooperative committees. There is no gender bias:

Committee Men

Women Total

Development 4

1 5

Controlling development committee 1

2 3

Weekly development 4

1 5

Controlling weekly development committee 1 2

3

Education 3

2 5

Patients care 2

3 5

Elderly care 3

2 5

Sanitation 2

1 3

Problem solving 1

2 3

Work assignment 1

2 3

Complaint hearing 1

2 3

Security 3

0 3

Lost money handling 2

1 3

Reception 2

2 4

By law preparation 8

7 15

Total

38 30 68

Table 3: Participation to the fifteen 2005 committees (Atnafu, 2005/62). Colours indicate the egalitarian (in

blue), or very low participation (in red) of women.

4. Productive and reproductive work

Productive labour is performed outside the home or in the public sphere to

produce goods and services. The productive role refers to activities of women

and men that produce economic resources, in cash or kind. Productive work

considered as real work which involves the production of goods and services

for consumption and trade (farming, fishing, employment and self-employment).

Both men and women undertake productive work although women’s roles are

generally overlooked

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Reproductive labour is performed at home or in the domestic or private sphere.

Reproductive work involves the care and maintenance of the household and its

members including bearing and caring for children, food preparation, water and

fuel collection, shopping, housekeeping and family care etc. Reproductive work

is crucial to human survival and the maintenance and reproduction of the labor

force, yet it is seldom considered as ‘real work’. As a result this

reproductive role is considered as un paid work, overlooked and is not also

equally valued as productive labour even if it has equally important for the

household and the country economy. In poor countries, reproductive work is,

for the most part, labor-intensive, and time-consuming. It is almost always

the responsibility of women and girls. ‘Real work’ is seen as productive work,

which involves the production of goods and services for consumption and trade

(farming, fishing, employment and self-employment). When people are asked what

they do, the response is most often related to productive work, especially

work which is paid or generates income (Fondo Sikod, 2007: 60).

As stated by Atnafu (2005), 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". There are complex relations between the working conditions of

women and the sex-gender system, which are grounded on the public-private

division. This binary division of the world has been reflected throughout

modern history in the economy and in the value given to the different types of

work, as well as in the consideration of certain tasks as women’s work or

female jobs and others as men’s work or male jobs. The complexity of the sex-

gender system and the importance of power relations within this system

generate a mutual feedback between the symbolic value attributed to jobs, who

performs them (or who is expected to perform them) and their economic value.

Household work is the best example of this. Not only is it unpaid, but its

essential contribution to social reproduction has been rendered invisible. For

traditional economic approaches, the home is merely a unit of consumption, it

is not considered as a producer of inputs and resources necessary for the

functioning of the economic system (Serrana Mesa, 2009: 45)

A number of factors are responsible for the gender division of labor today:

some are gender-neutral and others are gender-biased. Reproductive work such

as child care, cooking, cleaning, fetching wood and water, etc. are activities

ascribed to women that are gender-biased. They have come about as a result of

socio-cultural socialization, and not necessarily from ability based on

comparative advantage. A gender-neutral process is one where in a household,

comparative advantage and the maximization of household welfare is used to

determine which partner does what. For example, in Cameroon the traditional

division of labor most often situates women in roles based on providing

emotional support and maintenance, while men are primarily responsible for

economic support and contact with the world outside the home. Women’s

participation is in activities such as cooking, fetching water, and food

processing, all of which are outside the cash economy and concentrated around

the household (Fondo Sikod, 2007: 60)

Alberto Alesina and e tal, (2010) have also explained the origin of gender

role. They argued that the role of women in the family, in society and in the

work force varies across nations and cultures. In most cases, women are

expected to stay at home, care for the children, and specialize in home

production. The current differences in gender role attitudes arose from the

historic mode of agricultural production - e.g., plough agriculture, hoe

agriculture, shifting agriculture, etc. - which in turn affected the gender

division of labor historically and the subsequent evolution of norms about the

natural role of women in the family and society. Plough cultivation is more

capital intensive, but also requires more strength to manipulate the plough

and the animals that pull the plough. Therefore, in plough societies men tend

to dominate agricultural work, while women primarily engage in home production

and other activities that occur within the household. Because women specialize

in work in the domestic domain, the home comes to be seen as the “natural”

place for women, rather than outside the home in the fields or in the

workforce.

5. Gender role in Ethiopia: productive and reproductive role

In Ethiopia there is a strict division of labor based on sex. Even the roles

assigned to each sex vary from a region to another, girls are educated during

their childhood to be obedient, submissive, shy, virginal and imaginative .

Women are then suffering from socio-cultural and economic discrimination and

have fewer opportunities compared to men for personal growth, education and

employment (Yassin, 2008:37 -77). Gender and age are the chief parameters

concerning work: baking injera, fetching water are left only to females;

ploughing, hunting, slaughtering are works left only to males (Yirga,

2007:58). Women and the youngest do most of the work. 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, 2004/47 and 57).

6. Gender role in Amhara: productive vs reproductive

Gender based division of labor on productive and reproductive work is also

true for Amhara people. Among Amhara peasants, the wife is too busy in the

morning to sit down for a regular breakfast; she has breakfast while doing her

various works: preparing and baking injera, preparing the local beer (tela),

spinning cotton, collecting dung for fuel, sweeping rubbish of the floor,

carrying water from the spring, weaving straw baskets of mats. If the peasant

is working in a distant farm field, his wife carries lunch out to him.

Otherwise, she risks being beaten with a stick. If he is not far away he come

for lunch, they eat together at home. After dinner, the peasant asks often his

wife or his children to wash his feet, while other wash themselves (Atnafu,

2005:45.The woman's schedule is today only lightened, not radically altered.

Women are beaten as a matter of cause for mistakes in their work. The status

women enjoyed in traditional Amhara society is therefore to be at home and her

main work is to serve her husband and her children (Levine, 1965; Atnafu,

2005:80).

7. Gender role in Awra Amba: productive vs reproductive

On the contrary, Awra Amba considers work as a moral value, even the most

important one, "the essence of life" as said by a community member (Yassin,

2008:73). Work is an answer to poverty, but it is first of all a means of

accomplishment and to be involved in the community welfare, fundamental need

rather than a means to meet his needs (Atnafu, 2005:48). 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 (Yirga, 2007:54). 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

(Atnafu, 2005:50, 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. 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 (Atnafu, 2005:50). Except the New Year, which is in Ethiopia the

11th of September – or the 12th September in Leap Years, the Awra Amba members

do work every day and therefore do not observe any other public or religious

holidays (Calvino, 2009). All members of the cooperative spend five days a

week doing communal work, with nine hours a day, till 5 pm (Atnafu, 2005:80).

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 (Joumard, 2010:6).

The Awra Amba inhabitants work a lot: work is an essential value of the

community. Awra Amba community leaves little room for leisure and pleasure:

life is a too serious thing for privilege immediate pleasures. There is little

room for gambling or dancing, neither for sex outside marriage There is no

coffee ceremony as it is regarded as a waste of time and a stage for

backbiting (Yirga, 2007:52), 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.

According to institute of international education (2009) report, in Awra Amba,

the division of physical work is based on one’s ability. Therefore, disabled

individuals and the elderly have very few labor-oriented responsibilities.

Income is distributed equally among adults in the community by considering the

number of children in each household. A focus group discussion of young men

revealed that the baking of enjera (an Ethiopian national food traditionally

prepared by women), fetching water and weaving are not assigned to members of

the community based on their gender. Fulfilling these duties is considered

part of their responsibilities too. Interestingly, when Awra Amba was first

showcased on a national broadcast on Ethiopian Television (ETV), Zumra himself

was shown baking injera. During the data collection, the research team also

observed men fetching water, cleaning and weaving. Also observed were women

producing materials for weaving and chairing receptions and public relation

committee meetings.

Ezega.com was asked zumura about what led you to establish a gender equity

community?

Zumra said: I came up with such an idea out of things that I have seen in my

family. My parents were farmers. They both spent the whole day in the farm but

when they came back home it was time for my father to rest but never for my

mother. After she has been through the same tiresome day with my father, she

had to do everything at home. She was expected to cook, clean the house, and

us, the children, wash my father’s foot, serve the traditional meal. On the

top of that, when my mother could not take care of the house on time, my

father abused, insulted and sometimes harmed her. I just wondered why this had

to happen to my mother as if she had extra strength or something. But I

realized later that this was not an isolated event that only happened in our

house, rather it was happening in all families. At the time, I believed (as I

do now) that the man as a father and the women as a mother should be engaged

in duties in accordance to their capacities and should both be respected and

treated equally.

Awra Ambans view gender equality as a prerequisite for community development.

The “women can engage in cultivating, in weaving and in producing industrial

goods and participating in different responsibilities. The men participate as

well in fetching water, caring for children, in threading cotton and

collecting firewood, activities which in most other parts of country are left

up to women” (Mussa, 2004). The community welcomes women who leave their

abusive households and villages to seek refuge in an environment that values

their opinions and contributions. Ideas and practices that reinforce the

notion of male superiority are frowned upon in the Awra Amba community. In Awra

Amba, woman's inferior position in the economy was abolished by destroying the

traditional division of work based on sex. 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 Yassin, 2008:105).

The un-gendered division of labor has a positive generational impact as

children in the community grow up integrating and internalizing an equality

perspective that has the ability to continue impacting neighboring communities

if we look at it from a social learning theory point of view – doing by

learning from what others do. The community was indeed founded on the rejection

of the patriarchal authority of men and the subordination of women (Atnafu,

2005:78). According to article 5 of the Communal Statute, activities have not

to be based on sex and children are encouraged to participate in any activity,

depending on their age (Mekonnen, 2009:29). Work, functions and

responsibilities are assigned based on ability rather than sex or (Yirga,

2007:91). It is a social rule and a personal behavior. Sexual division of work

is therefore minimal. Both men and women share the work in the kitchen and

other traditional female occupations. They both share also the outside work

and more generally all traditional male occupations. Both the mother and

father share equal responsibility of their family and of their young children

(Yirga, 2007:60). No one has authority over another, and economic decisions

are on mutual consent. There is role reciprocity: men stay at home and women

work outside, and vice-versa.

In addition to literature review I have also used interview method to have

additional information on Awra Amba community. I was interviewed Mr Ashenafi

Alemu who has conducted a good research at Awra Amba community. He is a

lecturer in language and literature department at Gonder University and he is

also members of Gonder university research and study office. According to him,

Women are equally participated with men in productive and reproductive works

in Awra Amba community. Their work is equally valued as men work. In Awra Amba

community there is no division of labor based on sex rather the community

members are equally participated both in productive and reproductive role

based on their capacity. Accordingly, both men and women are participated in

Collecting fire wood, cooking food, Fetching water, caring childrens, Bringing

goods to market, Spinning, Cotton clearing, taking care of animals, Ploughing,

Threshing etc. He argued that only pregnancy and breast-feeding are the

exclusive domains of women, because they are linked to a physical reality and

not to a social choice. Awra Amba is therefore a community where men care for

children, cook and spin, and where women plough and weave. It is a village of

gender equity and democracy.

References

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Amba children, based on a 45 day field survey: master thesis, department of

educational science

Alberto Alesina, Paola Giuliano, Nathan Nunn, 2010.The Origins of Gender

Roles: Women and the Plough

Atnafu Solomon, 2005. Social transformation among the Awra-Amba community

(North-Western Ethiopia, Amhara region): change in gender roles and values.

Master thesis, Addis Ababa univ., Dep. Of sociology and social anthropology,

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 2005

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utopia] retrieved at http://lestribulationsdantoine.blogspot.com/2000/01/12-

awra-ameba-une-utopie-africaine.html

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workhttp://w3.uniroma1.it/sapienzamillenniumcourse/Student%2520Assignments/May

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