Secular Ethiopian village twice as wealthy as religious neighbours

rughdh

This is a great story about Awra Amba, a secular, gender-equitable, Ethiopian village that's twice as wealthy (or half as poor) as its Christian and Muslim neighbours who appear to be having problems with it, although they are slowly (after 40 years) beginning to come round.

Linky:

This Ethiopian village has gained wealth, but has bred hostility

weisses

And yet Zumra Nuru believes in God but managed to keep religion out of the village, admirable effort

rughdh

weisses wrote: »

And yet Zumra Nuru believes in God but managed to keep religion out of the village, admirable effort

"Honesty and love for fellow human beings is [his] religion". His personal belief in a deity with or without a capital 'G' does nothing to change the fact that the community is non-religious and twice as prosperous as any neighbouring religious village.

Zumra Nuru (Founder of Awra Amba) wrote:

My family is originally Muslim. I visited my Christian neighbours and ate meat at their home. My mother got angry and beat me. She said, 'We can't eat meat slaughtered by Christians'. I said, 'Is it not the same animal?' I began thinking about these issues of religion. Later I thought why not make one family? There is one God. So why not unite? Honesty and love for fellow human beings is our religion.

recedite

Here's an interview with the guy.
His idea of "God" is a bit vague; it seems he is primarily interested in avoiding the tensions and artificial divisions between people that are created when they divide into the two camps, by self-identifying as either Christian or Muslim.
The village is more than secular, they seem to have an active policy of not having any organised religion. A "secular" village would have no policy on religion one way or the other.
If you were going to label him, it would probably be "humanist".

MrPudding

My favourite part of the story is the tales of love, compassion and understanding that the religious neighbours show the village. My favorite charactor is Abraw Argew, a farmer from a nearby christian village, he is full of love and charity. You can read his words immediately after the bit that talks about the hand grenade attack, assasination attempts and crop sabotage. In case you don't have time to look for yourself, here is what he says:

Abraw Argew, a chistian (presumably) wrote:

The Awra Amba community doesn't have any spiritual beliefs — not a mosque or a church[.] This makes them selfish. I hate the people of Awra Amba.

Simply overflowing with the love of his lord.

MrP