Awra Amba

Awra Amba is a self-governing Ethiopian village in the province of Amhara, where there is no religion in which there is equality between women and men, in which all work together dwellers for the common good.

The town is located 1900 m above sea level, 74 km from Bahir Dar and about 630 km from the state capital of Addis Ababa.

History and Organization

The village was founded in 1980 by Zumra Nuru, who had previously acquired as an itinerant preacher in vain for his ideas. From an Alawite village he recruited from 70 followers and settled on a 2,000 -meter-high Brachfäche. The first years were hard, but with the hard work of the residents to a modest prosperity developed in the village.

In the late 1980s wanted the Marxist regime Zumra Nuru arrested as counter-revolutionary. He fled, and the community dissolved. After the fall of the communist regime in 1991, most residents returned, and the village took a remarkable upswing. A school for the children was built, a retirement home, a fabric factory with looms, a tailor and a grain mill. Profits are divided among the villagers.

Churches or mosques, there is not in the village. Religious communities, religious rites and festivals are abolished. Zumra Nuru is illiterate. He is of the view that religions cause more harm than peace. In addition to the practice of religion and the consumption of alcohol is prohibited. If you are caught a third time in alcohol consumption must leave the village. Girls may marry only from the age of 18, men over 22 years.

Today, more than 400 people in the village and the prosperity of life increases. Social scientists from all over the world visit the village. From neighboring communities Awra Amba is sometimes viewed with skepticism with hostility. The imam of a neighboring Muslim village is the view that all infidels must be killed and Allah will punish the village.