Awra Amba - Awra Amba

Awra Amba, amharic: አውራ አምባ, is a self-governing village in Amhara Province in northern Ethiopia, 74 km northeast of Bahir Dar, in which there are no religions, in which there is equality between women and men and in which all residents work together for the common good.

background

location

Awra Amba is 1900 meters above sea level, 74 km from Bahir Dar and around 630 km from the state capital Addis Ababa away. The area used for the village and agriculture is to the east of the Lake Tana and east of the A3 trunk road.

history

The village was founded in 1980 by Zumra Nuru, who had previously advertised his ideas as an itinerant preacher in vain. From a Alevi Village he attracted 70 followers and settled on a fallow land about 1900 meters high. The first years were tough, but with the diligence of the residents, a modest prosperity developed in the village.

In the late 1980s, the Marxist regime in Ethiopia wanted to arrest Zumra Nuru as a counterrevolutionary. He fled and the community disintegrated. After the regime was overthrown in 1991, most of the residents returned and the village took off noticeably. A school for the children was built, an old people's home, a fabric factory with looms, a tailor's shop and a grain mill. Profits are shared among the villagers.

There are no churches or mosques in the village. Religious communities, religious rites and holidays are abolished. Zumra Nuru is illiterate. He believes that religions cause more mischief than peace. In addition to the practice of religion, the consumption of alcohol is also prohibited. Anyone caught drinking alcohol a third time has to leave the village. Girls are only allowed to marry from the age of 18, men from the age of 22.

Today over 400 people live in the village and prosperity is increasing. Social researchers from all over the world visit the village. Awra Amba is viewed with skepticism, sometimes with hostility, by neighboring communities.

getting there

mobility

Tourist Attractions

• museum. The history and philosophy of the village are presented in one room.
• kindergarten.
• Primary school library.

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  kindergarten

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  Elementary school library

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  Residential huts

• Residential houses.
• Old people's home.
• Web manufacture.

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  Furnace in one of the apartment buildings

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  Web manufacture

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  Old people's home

shop

kitchen

accommodation

trips

literature

• Buse, Uwe: Communes: Without God and without booze. In:The mirror, No.9 (2011), Pp. 54-57.
• Less, Sven; Marek, Michael: Lived utopia in Awra Amba, Deutschlandfunk, day by day, broadcast on July 16, 2019 (accessed on July 16, 2019)
• Joumard, Robert: Awra Amba, an Ethiopian utopia. In:attac.org, Tuesday September 28, 2010.

Web links

• Homepage of the place