This week's entry was written by Negash Abebe, a Future Generations student based in Ethiopia. Negash and the other students met Zumra, an influential community leader, during the East African regional residential this term.
The day that Zumra arrived at the
Red Cross Training Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the waitress who came to
our table stopped all of a sudden and stared at one of our companions. "Are
you not going to introduce me to him,” she asked, after a brief pause. “I am
pretty sure I've seen the man somewhere, possibly on national television. Just
can't recall where.”
We told her that she was right, and
the man with a stoic face she was staring at was Zumra, the founder of the
famous Awura Amba community. Across the country, almost everywhere everyone has
some knowledge of the relentless Zumra and the community he formed. To many, he
is a symbol of defiance, perseverance, love for humanity, justice, and equality
for men and women.
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| Zumra (center) with the East African cohort of the Class of 2017 |
At a very young age, Zumra began questioning
the legitimacy and fairness of the community's existing social structure where women
were looked down on simply because they were not males and obliged to marry at
a very young age. After decades of soul-searching, determination in the face of
critical challenges, and hard work, he founded a community known today not only
in the country, but also around the globe for its unique lifestyle and social
ideals that center on principles of social and economic justice and peace.
Awura Amba community is as much well-known
as the man who brought it into existence. Nearly ten years ago, when the news
of the ways of the community came in to public attention, journalists came to speak with Zumra and other community members.
It took a relatively short period of time before the name of the community,
Awura Amba, became a highly celebrated brand nationwide. Some people named
their businesses after the community. A popular local newspaper adopted the
name.
From the very outset, Zumra has had
little interest in attracting aid or any other kind of external assistance. He
truly believes that in order to bring about change in a community, the most useful
asset is the unwavering human spirit. He argues that many, if not all problems
of the world, are solved if and only if humans place trust in their own power
to make change. Zumra understands well that despite aid to a community’s cause,
change happens for real when the desired change is in fact in line with the
desire of the people, and as a result everyone has set its mind and heart on
it. In the passionate lecture he gave in the residential program for the Africa
cohort of the class of 2017, Zumra again and again asserted that people have to
believe in themselves more than anything else.
In a country where the overwhelming
majority of the population strongly believes in the value of religion, Awura Amba's
disregard for religious institutions is unusual. Zumra said that this progressive
position has brought discrimination from other communities. During the previous
regime, they were even untruly accused of conspiring against the then government
and were forced to flee their land and seek refuge in the southern part of the
country. At the time, people made every possible effort to wipe them out from
the face of the land simply because they refused to believe in what others did.
Every member of the community including the founder firmly stresses that God is
in people's mind and heart, and making institutions and going to one in search
of God is a total waste of time. Zumra argues that the divine resides inside of
people and looking outward for it is a waste of energy and time.
To Zumra and his community, the
definition of divinity extends to the level that people are divine as long as
they do the right and righteous. The idea of showing respect to churches and
religious institutions that people built with their own hands, while
simultaneously disrespecting the people, is ludicrous. The Awura Amba community
believes that both earthly and heavenly rewards, if any, are the result of
one's actions. Zumra strongly believes and passionately speaks that people are
capable of creating heaven on earth. To him and his like-minded followers, action
and only action speaks louder than words.
The following day, as we left the Red
Cross Training Center together, the group of students debated Zumra’s position
on religion. As a young community change agent who would like to believe that reason
paves the road to a better future, I listened attentively to the man's critical
thinking and liberal attitude. I was in awe.
Zumra’s inquisitive mind, outspokenness,
and tenacity in the face of injustice has put him in a difficult position since
an early age. He fled from his parents’ home at age thirteen. People did
everything in their power to convince him that he wasn't “normal.” After
leaving home, he spent five years traveling throughout the Amhara region. He
sat alone in the middle of the night amidst wild animals and thought about
social justice questions until sleep took him.
Zumra has lived his entire life in
defiance. He bravely challenges people, holds his ground, and yet keeps an open
mind. He believes that the energy that keeps him going comes from his love for
humanity. Standing for the disadvantaged lightens his heart. Making peace
thrills him. Taking care of senior members of the community gives him immense satisfaction.
To Zumra, all these aren't only the moral thing to do, but the most rational
path to pursue for a man and a community.
Zumra is a living testimony of human energy. He walked his talk, and
with little to no aid, he proved the fact that it is human energy that essentially
brings and eventually sustains effective community change of all kind.
Today, the Awura Amba community, some
five hundred kilometers from Addis Ababa, has five hundred members. There are
also thousands of members of the community who live in other parts of Ethiopia
and across the globe. Members share in and advocate the ideals of the community
that center on equality of gender, social and economic justice, and peaceful coexistence.
Today, in the Awura Amba community a man does what women do and vice versa. Children's
rights are respected and protected and from an early age, kids are taught the
values of equality, the necessity of caring for the disadvantages, hard work, and
the importance of living a free life that does not detach itself from responsibility.
Awura Amba is a utopian community.
Even still, it has a long way to go in terms of achieving equality of gender, social
and economic fairness, and peaceful coexistence of communities. A man, who has
zero formal education, and little outside aid has managed to effectively make community
change possible that many nations and people still dream of. If this isn't the
power of human energy in action, I have to say, I don't know what is.
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