**3. Results of the study**

The analysis of the data showed 13 themes existed in the transcripts in the "Awramba" community. The 13 key themes were:

1.Biography of Zumra and the establishment of the community (theme-1)

2.Membership criteria (theme-2)

3.Means of income (theme-3)

4.Handicraft skill and environmental protection (theme-4)

5.Celebration (theme-5)

6.Marriage and divorce (theme-6)

	- Commitment to be Honesty (10a)
	- Commitment for the scheduled meetings (10b)

*An Ethnographic Study on Sense of a Community: The "Awramba" Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105953*


13.Members who do not share geographical location (theme-13)

#### **3.1 Biography of Zumra and the establishment of the community (theme-1)**

#### *3.1.1 Biography of Zumra*

The community was established by the now 72-year-old farmer Zumra Nuru. He was born in 1949 in "Este, Gondor." At the age of 4, he was raised and asked four challenging questions to his family. The first one was, gender equality, he was raised this question for the reason that when he was looking his peasant parents, his father and mother work together at the day time, in the evening his father takes a rest but his mother continues her work in the home without getting any support from her husband, at that time Zumra thought why his father does not support his mother and thought that was not fair.

The second question he was raised was about children right, children were commanded by their parents that was above their capacity, if they fail, insult and physical punishment apply to them, Zumra asks why?

The third question was about the elders, when elder get sick or when they loss their ability to work, no one looks and helps them, Zumra asked, why not they help them?

The fourth one was Zumra's experience that he faced many times when people attack, rob, talk falsely, and kill another people, he was asked, why people do things to others that they do not want for themselves?

When he raised these four questions, his mother took it as mental disorder and took him to different traditional medicines, but there was no change.

Till the age of 13, he rose in his parent house and his family assumed that "his idea was different from other children and people for the reason that he was born with mental disorder."

After the age of 13, according to Participant:1, he thought, "If he goes to different places and explain his ideas may be, he would get some people and might understand his ideas," by considering this, he gone out a journey in different places of "Gondor" and "Gojam" to spread his ideas. At that time most of the time he availed himself in different social gatherings such as social gathering for mourning and so on.

Even though people who listened to his ideas did not consider him as mentally disordered as his family, but they did not take the idea rather they said the ideas are good. He stayed for 5 years to explain his ideas rounding in different places of "Gondor" and "Gojam," he passes the day time with people and the night time sleeping under the tree, at that time different animals stay with him and leave him at the morning. After 5 years, he thought to go back to home to farm and to help elders and peoples in need, to get mental satisfaction.

Zumra came back to his family after 5 years and told them he wants to marry and to farm the land. His family said according to Participant:1, "the traveling from place to place and the migration taught him so now he became healthy because he is asking us to provide him a girl for marriage and to farm the land." After he married and worked as a farmer, he started helping the elders and people in need, his family said according to Participant:1, "we said he is recovered from his mental illness, but he is in the worst condition, because he spent his money for non-relatives or others rather than spending it for family and relatives."

After this occurrence, according to Participant:1, "he raised the fifth question by saying that he gave his money for his people why his family say, he is giving his money for non-relatives or external bodies? his family replied him 'if he knows he became mentally ill unless he should know that after seven generation people become non-relatives' external bodies' and he said 'after counting seven generation they said non-relatives or external bodies where did they get this saying from? Whose people, are they? considering people as external bodies results hatred, hatred results conflict, people start to fear people because of this, instead if people ignore picturing people as external bodies, and consider all human being as brother and sister so that people can create earthly paradise and we can live in harmony."

And he was added "as to him all human being are the sons of Adam and Eve, so he gave to his people." But still his family said "his idea is strange because of his mental illness'so; he ignored his family start to use his free time after farm and helping people in need for searching people who can understand and accept his ideas."

Zumra was traveling in different places for searching people who might understand and accept his ideas.

#### *3.1.2 The establishment of the community*

At the time of traveling, he got some peasants who understood and accepted his ideas, they said to him according to Participant:1, "your ideas are good, but how can we establish such like community?" then Zumra thought that "if he moves to this place, they will accept all his ideas" so brought his family to the then place "Awramba" community are living in 1971, and started establishing the community. He did not get all the people who accepted his ideas in the same place because those people are living in different places.

Some of his ideas that explained to the peasants were according to Participant:1, "when we establish the community, we should consider cooperative working, women equality, avoiding bad habits and speech, we bring peace instead of expecting it from others, bad habits and bad attitude are like spiders web it has not root."

He added "there are two important things, they are bad doing and bad speech, we should avoid bad doing and bad speech that what we do not want to be done for us and to be saying about us, we should avoid anger, insult and bad attitudes. We should do for others what we want to be done for us. If a female works a male work, she is working her father's work similarly if a male works female work, he is working his mothers work, if we get this it is development, change, if we consider our wives as external body, we are also considering our mothers and sisters like that, so we should avoid such kind of attitudes" some people accepted him still others ignored him.

The people who ignored his ideas replied, when he talks about women right, they said "who is going to bear and who is being bearded" when he talks about child right, they said "child should eat what is provided to him and work what he commanded and should not talk equally with his parents" when he talks about elders care they said "who bear who's poor" and when he said "we should avoid being liar and captious ('negeregnanet')" they also did not accept him. People who ignored his ideas said "he should not take our children" and start working to avoid him, at the time of the

#### *An Ethnographic Study on Sense of a Community: The "Awramba" Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105953*

occurrence of political conflict between "Tigray" liberation front (TPLF) and "Derg," those people who opposed Zumra's idea reported to the "Derg" officers as the member of TPLF and then he was jailed for 6 days. After that, he and peoples who accepted his idea migrated through "Jimma" to the then South Nation Nationalities and Peoples Region specifically a place named "Bonga." They stayed there for 5 years and returned in 1992/93 to then place of "Awramba" community members are living.

At this time their land was gone, got a small plot of land, though they asked the government body, they got the answer "wait till 1996 at that time we rearrange the land so you will get on that time." Even though the community asked on the time, people who ignored the community idea collaborated with the field team who were assigned to the rearrangement of the land said, "if we give them the land the 'Awramba' community stay here and live forever but if we ignore to give them additional land, they will leave the area and will migrate to other place" and decided not to give them the additional land. Still the community limited to the only 17.5 hectare land.

The community decided and said that "people who depend on only land income cannot improve; we should create additional income generating activities" the community changed this plan into application; they are getting income from different activities.

Though the community faced many problems during the migration and when they reestablished the community in 1999, after they promoted themselves in 2000/2001, not only Ethiopian but also human being around come and appreciate the community and their ideas. Zumra said "previously I lost a single person who understands my ideas but now I got people around the world that understand and accept my ideas therefore I think, I tread one step forward."

Now he is saying according to Participant:1, "we should reach our ideas to the educated people, let them decide if they accept our ideas, they took it, or if they think our ideas is not accepted let, they decide to ignore, and we should also pass our ides to the next generation and we should think about what should we work and pass, if they accepted or not let them decide by themselves is now the main objective of the community."

#### **3.2 Membership criteria (theme-2)**

The major criteria to be members of the community are respecting human being, the great asset in the community is human, money is the second asset. Additionally, there are other criteria one should obey to be members of the community, they are: avoiding being liar, captious, theft, adultery, addiction (chewing khat or drinking alcohol). Avoiding bad doing and speech, collaborating with the community, if anyone interested to be member of the community and fulfill the above criteria can be accepted by the community.

From this it is clear that respecting human being and the norm of the major community are the criteria used to be a member of that community.

#### **3.3 Means of income (theme-3)**

As they are limited to 17.5-hectare land, the community used it effectively for market garden and created other sources of income because begging is not accepted in the community.

They work different businesses such as shops, cafe, mill, traditional cloths store, guest house for tourists, and weaving workshops, which produce different traditional raiments.

Currently the community started producing food oil and exports it to different places such as "Bahir dar" (see **Figures 1**–**4**).

**Figure 1.** *The community traditional cloth shop (photo of the author).*

**Figure 2.** *The community guest house (photo of the author).*

**Figure 3.** *The community weaving workshop (photo of the author).*

*An Ethnographic Study on Sense of a Community: The "Awramba" Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105953*

**Figure 4.** *The community is building storage and working place for the production of food oil (photo of the author).*

After watching the "Awramba" community members; hard working outputs and the community members' ethics of the community that is living around, the community started to say according to Participant:2, "please stay here for our children, we hated you unknowingly," the interviewee added what their leader Zumra said to them before long time ago when the surrounding community members treating the community in bad way, "if they did not talk to you, try to talk them, if they did not salute you try to salute them, because unknown person is like infant, if the infant raise a fire to his mother the mother took the fire from the infant but not reply to him in the same way, like that our neighbor community members treat us badly because of the fail to know our ideas and beliefs one they could understand us and treat us in a good way, now we are looking our patients fruit it enable us to live in a peaceful way."

The community members work 6 days a week and the remaining 1 day, which is Sunday, is used to do their individual work at home.

#### **3.4 Handicraft skill and environmental protection (theme-4)**

The community members have a good handicraft skill and applied it all of their home by working environmentally friendly cooking hearth, which uses small amount of fire wood, and surprisingly most of the materials such as: shelf, table, chair, and even bed made from some amount of wood and mostly through clay soil (**Figure 5**).

The community also made different materials from clay soil but because these materials are produced by the neighboring community, to avoid tender, the community stopped its production for business purposes.

#### **3.5 Celebration (theme-5)**

The celebration of the formation of the community and New Year ceremony is the most and well-celebrated ceremony in the community. This is celebrated once a year, at every "Paugume 5 or 6" linking it with Ethiopian New Year. This can strengthen the social network of the community.

As Participant: 4 said, "we celebrate once a year two consecutive days which are the last day of the year and the first day of the new year, we celebrate the last day of the year because of it was the day that our leader Zumra finished founding the

#### **Figure 5.**

*The community made and shelf with some amount of wood and mostly through clay soil (photo of the author).*

community with our fathers, and we also add one day on it as the first day of the new year, so we at those days we stop working, and take a rest but we did not prepare special food for the ceremony we eat what are prepared in our home and gather around a tree which are located at center of the village, the community orchestra come and we pass those time on playing and relaxing."

The other important issue that uses as a means of strengthening the social network of the community is their wedding value.

#### **3.6 Marriage and divorce (theme-6)**

#### *3.6.1 Marriage (theme-6a)*

In the community, members believe that, when human being is living, he is better to marry whom he/she wants and replace himself. In the community, wedding has the following steps. Firstly, by the time the boy and girl become emotional attached and become eager to get married, he/she tells the elder near him/her.

Secondly, the elder checks their age whether the boy's age is 20 and above and the girl's age is 19 and above, and their need to be marry each other.

Finally, the elder takes the responsibility and the bride and the groom sign for each other. The amazing thing is that there is no wedding ceremony, after signing for the marriage, the bride and the groom immediately go to their work. Their family gives the ceremony expenditures for the married couples instead of making wedding ceremony.

As Participant:3 explained that, "the marriage should be one to one, before marriage sex is prohibited, after marriage sex is also prohibited out of marriage, if not we are not different from animals, so we should apply the law that we are agreed upon that is the norm of marriage."

#### *3.6.2 Divorce (theme-6b)*

There are three reasons that the community put might enable someone to make divorce, it is not compulsory but it might make the person to divorce and the community may accept it if the reason is real.

*An Ethnographic Study on Sense of a Community: The "Awramba" Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105953*

If one of them is sterile and if it is checked by diagnosis, the one that has no problem can divorce and remarry.

Between the couple if there is sexual problem that cannot be recovered by treatment, if the problem can be fixed by treatment, and if the couples do not have enough money, the community supports them, but if the problem cannot be treated, they can divorce, because the problem may be a burden to both of them.

If there is Barney that cannot be fixed by advising, if the problem cannot be avoided, the community interference helping them in advice, for the reason that the Barney should not be transferred to the children the couples can divorce.

But other than the above reasons such as because of gossip or attraction of another person cannot be allowed to divorce.

#### **3.7 Mourning value (theme-7)**

Mourning value of the community is different from other community members who live in neighborhoods and with other Ethiopian community. The community believes that the mourning should be in lifetime, through sympathy people should help each other, but after death happens, God takes his thing, so only the assigned members of the community go to the mourning place but other community members stay supporting the mourners, only the assigned persons attend the funeral, after the burial, as Participant:1 said, "we bring the mourners with us to work place not assuming that the mourners will do work, but to keep their mental from the side effects of exaggerating mourning. We do this because of three reasons, the first one is, we already lost our person so why we lost our time for the second time, the second one is not to harm our and the mourners mental, the third one is to prevent the mourners from financial crises because of mourning ceremony. Therefore, what we do is helping and supporting the mourner family by any means, if they are elders, we support what they need, if they are children, we give them any care what they need and support to achieve their goal. In general, the community believes in helping and supporting when the individual is alive."

#### **3.8 Religious view (theme-8)**

All of the community members are believers in one god. Even though they believe in one god, they do not have a single mosque or church. Participant:4 said "we believe in one god, and our God is with us and get everywhere so we do not need to build mosque or church."

Participant:3, said "The community members believes that human belief can be explained by the work of people do on people. We should help people in need, human can be explained by his good did, we all the community members believe in this, we believe in one God, members of the community came from the religions of Islam and Christianity, we believe that we should not dived by race, clan even in religion, as we are human being, we all are brothers and sisters."

#### **3.9 Gender equality (theme-9)**

The community is distinct from the rest of Ethiopian community related to gender role, the first question that made the leader of the community to establish the community is gender equality. In the community, there is no differentiated role for male and female. All males work what females work including work in the kitchen and

females also work all the works that males work including farming outside of the home. So, in the community, male and female participate equally in all things.

#### **3.10 Commitment (theme-10)**

#### *3.10.1 Commitment to be honest (theme-10a)*

In the community, honesty is one of their assets, if anyone gets any material or money, it is returned to the owner, if the person who gets the material did not meet the owner, he should give to the committee that is already established to do this responsibility.

#### *3.10.2 Commitment for the scheduled meetings (theme-10b)*

There are three types of scheduled meetings in the community: the first one is family meeting in every 15 days during the night time, they used it to monitor children ethics and to make solutions if they face, in this meeting all the family members including children participate. The second type of meeting is every once in a month at each working institution to plan and put solutions for problems if they faced related their work. The last kind of meeting is once in every 6 months, this meeting is a general meeting, in which all the community members participate.

#### **3.11 Ways of handling conflict (theme-11)**

In the first place to handle conflict, there are the community members who put the coping mechanism at the time of the community establishment in 1964. As Participant:2 said that "The community believe that the great asset is human being, so there should no need to create conflict with this great asset, if we consider this idea, we should do good thing for this our great asset and if we want to create earthly paradise and want to live in harmony, we should avoid bad doing and bad speech."

If the conflict occurs, the community considers it as ideas conflict rather than taking it as individual conflict, both the individuals discuss on the issue and try to understand each other, most of the time the conflict of the ideas solves at this stage. But if they cannot solve the problem, they take the issue to the grievance listener committee, if the problem is serious and the committee cannot solve it, the issue is taken to the "woreda" court. Participant:1, who works as the promoter of the community, said that, "the entire problem solved at individual level so that even the grievance committee cannot get any case of the conflict."

As the researcher got information from the community members, there is no a single police station or court in the village.

#### **3.12 Services delivered (theme-12)**

The community-built school starting from Kindergarten up to grade 8, health center, cafeteria, and public library were built and still managed by persons selected from the community. These indicate that how the community is motivated to solve their problems.

*An Ethnographic Study on Sense of a Community: The "Awramba" Experience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105953*
