An Ethnographic Study on Sense of a Community: The “Awramba” Experience

Abstract

The study was conducted on “Awramba” Community who are living in “Amhara” region, south “Gondor” Zone, Ethiopia. The general objective of this study was to capture an understanding of sense of community in “Awramba” community. The study tried to answer the following questions: How the community was established? What are the criteria to be part of the community? What are the shared values of social practice that has survived for the test of time? What is the historical background of the “Awramba” Community? The researcher used realist ethnography method to achieve the above objective and to answer the questions. In-depth interview and observational guide techniques were applied to collect reliable data for the study. The observation and in-depth interview data were analyzed qualitatively. The study showed the following themes: Membership criteria of the community are based on adhering to the community norm. They have a strong sense of community based on shared story, cooperative work, marriage and mourning values, religious view, gender equality, commitment to be honest, and solving their problem by themselves. The emotional connection of the “Awramba” community is strengthened by their common celebration of the yearly anniversary of New Year and scheduled meeting.

1. Introduction

One of the leading concerns in community psychology has been to capture the feelings that people have about the communities of which they are part. Following Sarason cited in [1], it is this area of work that has come to be associated with the term “sense of community” (SOC). The concept of SOC is necessarily a multidimensional one, covering various facets of people’s opinions about their communities. There are a number of further complexities to the question, not the least of them being the problem of how people define their communities in the first place. For example, in England, research has suggested that people often refer to their immediate localities when asked to say where they live and where they feel they belong, while at the same time they think in terms of a series of overlapping maps of different sizes, each significant in different ways. Furthermore, there is a need to come to terms with the fact that while many people may define their communities in territorial or locality terms, others do so in terms of common identity with a social, religious, or ethnic group [1].

Sense of community has been described as “the sense that one was part of a readily available, mutually supportive network of relationships upon which one could depend and as a result of which one did not experience sustained feelings of loneliness” Sarason cited in [2].

Gusfield cited in [3], distinguished between two major uses of the term community. The first is the territorial and geographical notion of community—neighborhood, town, and city. The second is “relational,” concerned with “quality of character of human relationship, without reference to location.” Gusfield noted that the two usages are not mutually exclusive [3].

According to Sarason cited in [3], the basic characteristics of sense of community are: perception of similarity to others, an acknowledge interdependence with others, a willingness to maintain this inter dependence by giving or doing for others what one expects from them, the feeling that one is part of a larger dependable and stable structure.

McMillan and Chavis defined sense of community as “a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together.” In this key definition, they identify four major elements required for a sense of community: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and a shared emotional connection. By their definition, all four elements must be present to define a sense of community.

Membership referred to the feeling of belonging, of being part of a collective. A major part of membership was boundaries; if one belongs to a particular community, then the implication is that there are those who do not. This concept intuitively seems to be a necessary part of any definition of community; to have a sense of community, one must first belong to a community. Emotional safety derived from membership, the sense of belonging and identification with the community of interest, personal investment in the community leading to stronger bonds, and some kind of common symbol system, which unites a community.

The second dimension was that of influence, a bidirectional concept, as for a group to be attractive, an individual must feel they have some control and influence over it, whereas, conversely, for a group to be cohesive, it also must influence its individual members. McMillan and Chavis stated that pressure of conformity from community members actually comes from the needs of individual members for consensual validation. In turn, conformity serves as a force for cohesiveness.

The third dimension, integration and fulfillment of needs, referred to the idea that for a community to maintain a positive sense of togetherness, the individual group association must be rewarding for the individual members. Some of the more obvious rewards examined in their paper are status of membership, success of the community, and the perceived competence of other members.

The last dimension is that of shared emotional connection. McMillan and Chavis suggested that this was in part based on a sense of shared history and identification with the community. The authors suggested that the more people interact, the more likely they are to form close relationships. As this interaction becomes more positive, the bond becomes stronger. Investment in the community determines the importance to individuals of the community’s success and current status. Those who give time and effort to community organizations and events will be more concerned about seeing the positive effects of these events than are those who have not been involved.

McMillan and Chavis stated that these aspects of community contribute to create each of the dimensions, which in turn work together dynamically to create and maintain an overall sense of community.

Generally, the first element is membership. Membership is the feeling of belonging or of sharing a sense of personal relatedness. The second element is influence, a sense of mattering, of making a difference to a group and of the group mattering to its members. The third element is reinforcement: integration and fulfillment of needs. This is the feeling that members’ needs will be met by the resources received through their membership in the group. The last element is shared emotional connection, the commitment and belief that members have shared and will share history, common places, time together, and similar experiences [3].

Knowing how people from diverse cultures form attachments to social groups is important, so general objective of the study is to capture an understanding of sense of community in the “Awramba” experience. Based on this general objective, this study tried to answer the following questions.

• What and how the community was established?

• What are the criteria to be part of the community?

• What are the shared values of social practice that has survived for the test of time?

As far as the researcher knowledge, there is empirical gap in the study of sense of community on “Awramba” community. But there are two research studies conducted related to women right and the nature of group communication under Addis Ababa University, which were: Women’s Decision-Making Rights in the Household [4], and a study of the Nature of Group Communication [5].

Solomon [4] found in his study on the community that, “it can be concluded that gender equality exists in most household matters in ‘Awramba’ community. The findings also indicate that the ‘Awramba’ community’s culture is women friendly; it respects the equality of every member especially men and women. In this community women are relatively emancipated from cultural domination and traditional patriarchal practices. Most married women in the home life have equal rights with their male counterparts.”

Tilahun [5] also found in his study on the community that, “the community exercises democratic principles in the sense that equal engagement and distribution of resources to the members. Developing brotherhood empathy, helping the misfortune and conflict reduction are basic principles of the community. A significant enhancement has also been made in empowering women. Unlike to the surrounding culture, the community could reshape the traditionally perceived role of women and men. The guiding perceived principle to ensure gender equality in the community is interpreted by assigning tasks regardless of sex, but ability”.

In addition to the above, there are problems of moral value deterioration in everywhere such as in respecting elders, being honest, and the problems of conflict, which is a practical gap. So, finding the answer for how the community is dealing with this problem is another reason for conducting this study.

1.1 Reasons of selecting the community for the study

The reason that sensitized the researcher to select the “Awramba” community for the study is that the shared values social practice that has survived for the test of the time. An indicator for this can be the following: (1) Women and children right existed in the community; elder care existed in the community, and (2) their commitment and cooperative work.

2. Methods of the study

The method applied to the study of the “Awramba” community was realist ethnography. Realist ethnography is an objective account of the situation, typically written in the third-person point of view and reporting objectively on the information learned from participants at a site. In this ethnographic approach, the realist ethnographer narrates the study in a third-person dispassionate voice and reports on what is observed or heard from participants. The ethnographer remains in the background as an omniscient reporter of the “facts.” The realist also reports objective data in a measured style uncontaminated by personal bias, political goals, and judgment. The researcher may provide mundane details of everyday life among the people studied. The ethnographer also uses standard categories for cultural description (e.g., family life, communication networks, work life, social networks, and status systems). The ethnographer produces the participants’ views through closely edited quotations and has the final word on how the culture is to be interpreted and presented [6].

2.1 Data source and study area

Both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. The primary data were generated from in-depth interviews, while secondary data were obtained from information desk of the community established by the community.

The data sources or the target population of the study that included “Awramba” people living in the village is also the researcher source of data.

This study was conducted on “Awramba” community who are living in “Amhara” region, south “Gondor” Zone, “Fogera woreda,” 72 km far from “Bahir dar” city and 7.5 km from “Wereta” on the way road to “Debretabor.” The exact geographical coordinates of the community place are latitude and longitude – 11.9203453, 37.7868649 [7]. As the interviewees told the researcher, the “Awramba” community started to establish in 1971 around 66 individuals living in different “kebeles,” but after the “Derg” regime came to the position, the leader of the community arrested for 6 days and the member of the community became 48 individuals. In 1987, 13 individuals of the community members migrated to southern nation nationalities and people’s region (SNNPR), “Bonga,” and the rest of the community members migrated to “Bonga” in 1988/89, when the community reestablished in 1999, the community members were 19 individuals (Table 1).

Year E.C.	Numbers of the “Awramba” community members
	Male	Female	Total
2008	196	207	403
2009	198	214	412
2010	211	221	432
2011	250	213	463
2012	232	245	480
2013	235	245	483
2014	240	254	494
2015	252	262	514
2016	253	263	516
2017	254	265	519
2018	257	278	535

Table 1.

The community members’ progress (source: “Awramba” community information desk established by the community and located in the center of the community).

2.2 Sample size and sampling techniques

The respondents of this study were “Awramba” people living in the village. In this community, there are a total of 177 households, for this study matter a total of four samples were purposefully selected to participate in the study.

Four interviewees were participated in the study. Out of the four participants of the study, participant 1 was selected purposefully by the researcher, because she was a person assigned by the community as a tour guide, worker in the museum and information desk of the community. The rest three participants of the study were the community members selected by her, because she assumed that they were knowledgeable about the “Awramba” community (Table 2).

No	Sex	Age	Code	Position
1	F	30	Participant:1	The community member, tour guide, worker in the community museum and information desk of the community.
2	M	27	Participant:2	Community member
3	M	59	Participant:3	Community member
4	F	53	Participant:4	Community member

Table 2.

Participants of the study.

2.3 Data gathering tools

The data gathering tools employed to gather reliable information from sample participants were in-depth interview questions and observation guide.

2.4 Data gathering procedures

First, the researcher prepared the interview questions, go to the community, and explained the objective to the person who assigned by the community to promote and who guides anyone who want to know about the community. Then the researcher conducted the interview with the participants who are selected by the community worker. During the course of the interview, the researcher had note of what has been said by the interviewees and made audio-visual record. And the observation also held simultaneously with the interview through having field note.

2.5 Methods of data analysis and interpretation

The data collected through in-depth interview recorded in audio-visual data changed into written form and the field note together with observation was organized by assembling the responses according to thematically in the result of the study part. The identified themes related to the literatures in the discussion part accordingly. In the interpretation part, the identified themes interpreted according to the objectives of the “Awramba” community and using McMillan and Chavis [3] four elements that define sense of community theory. Original name of participants of the study changed into numbers to keep confidentiality.

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)

   • Marriage (theme-6a)

   • Divorce (theme-6b)

7. Mourning value (theme-7)

8. Religious view (theme-8)

9. Gender equality (theme-9)

10. Commitment (theme-10)

    • Commitment to be Honesty (10a)

    • Commitment for the scheduled meetings (10b)

11. Ways of handling conflict (theme-11)

12. Services delivered (theme-12)

    • Elders care (theme-12a)

    • Preschool and moral education (theme-12b)

    • Public library

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 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).

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).

Figure 5.

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

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 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.

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.

3.12.1 Elder care (theme-12a)

As a participant said that “we help the elders without any external support for only our conscience satisfaction and because of the community believes that the great asset in our community is human being.” The community supports the elders in two ways: one is in their home, and the second way by preparing dormitory they bring them to elder care center. And the community uses two sources of income to support the elder, the first one is the income collected from the tourists as entrance fee, and the second one is by organizing the community as voluntaries one day a week every Tuesday working for the elder’s care (Figure 6).

Figure 6.

The community elder care house external picture (photo of the author).

The elders who supported in the elder care house come voluntarily, they can walk and sit out of the house, and their relatives and family members come and pass time with them (Figure 7).

Figure 7.

The community elder care house internal picture (photo of the author).

As the researcher got the information from the interview, the community-based organization, which is the so called “aregawuyan maqoya,” in which members and voluntary supporters are only members of the community.

3.12.2 Preschool and moral education (theme-12b)

The researcher observed the kindergarten or the preschool, which was built by the community before the government built the schools. In the preschool, as Participant:1 said “the children differentiate the Amharic and English alphabet and learn numbers in the pre-school. In addition to this they learn moral education, like avoiding lying, being captious, making conflict between individuals and so on. At the end of every daily lesson the children say the slogan ‘We growing children do not take anyone’s property, if we find s.th lost somewhere we will return to back to the owner. We work collaboratively and sympathetically. Our peaceful life will progress’ this slogan is also applied in the community and have two messages; the first one is we believe that if we work in unity and sympathy we will reach what the other world reached, the second one is that anything that we get by our effort is belongs to us but anything that we get dropped from others should be return to the owner, if we did not get the owner we give it to the committee who organized to do this work, the committee search the owner and return it.”

In the community taking people’s money is a crime; the children also are learning it. The children learn not only in word but also in practice, because the community believe that speech and work should go in the same way, if the adults teach the children and fail to apply, the children give more attention to what is seen than what they listen to. So, the community teaches the children not only in word but also in practice, when the children’s age becomes 7, they are sent to formal school (Figure 8).

Figure 8.

The community preschool, built by the community (photo of the author).

There are kindergarten, primary and senior secondary and preparatory schools in the village. The kindergarten and the senior secondary (grade 9 to grade 10) schools were built by the community themselves and the primary school (grade 1 to grade 8) and preparatory school (grade 11 to grade 12) were built by the government, and the community also built public library (Figures 9 and 10).

Figure 9.

The community preparatory school (photo of the author).

Figure 10.

The community public library (photo of the author).

3.12.3 Heath services

There is one health center in the community and still managed by the board selected from the community.

3.12.4 Water, electricity, and telephone

The interviewee from the community told us there is no as such challenging problem in these aspects. Water, electricity, and telephone services are available in the residence.

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

3.13.1 The graduated members

Members of the community graduated students now become 70, some of them are working in the community who got related fields, some of them want working on unrelated fields in the community by saying that “we should serve the community who teach us without learning for themselves” and still others are who did not get their fields are working in governmental and nongovernmental organizations, which are out of the community.

3.13.2 Members from the United Nations

As the community promoter officer Participant:1, said “at the time when the united Nations team visitors come to us and they said ‘we tried to settle peace around the world and different beliefs agreed on ‘do to others what you want for yourself’, but the community members are doing in practice and living on it” and they bestow our community two gold medals and one trophy, and they also bestow our leader Zumra a medal by saying “you are peace ambassador. Then they asked us if we are voluntary, they want to be members of the community from the place they were living and working. We replied them, the community is the house for anyone wants to make peace, making black or white is our God’s work so you can be the member of the community, so they are members of the community.”

4. Discussion

The general objective of this study was to capture an understanding of sense of community in the “Awramba” context. To achieve this objective, realist ethnography method was applied. From the study result, 13 major themes were found.

The first theme (theme-1) was the causes for the community founder Zumra to establish the community, which were four questions; gender role equality, children right, about helping elders, and fairness. Till the age of 13, Zumra raised and stayed with his parent house, he moved around different places of “Gondor” and “Gojam” to spread his ideas for 5 years. He also raised the fifth question about human brotherhood. At the time of traveling, he got some peasants who understood and accepted his ideas. He brought his family to the current place in 1971 and started establishing the community. People who ignored his ideas started working to avoid him. After that he and peoples who accepted his idea migrated through “Jimma” to the then SNPPR specifically “Bonga.” They stayed there for 5 years. When they returned in 1992/93 to then place of “Awramba,” their land was gone, and got a small plot of land. The community decided to create additional income generating activities rather than depending on the farm. After they promoted themselves in 2000/2001 on different media, Ethiopians and tourists around the world came and appreciated their ideas and way of life.

Regarding (theme-2), which is about membership criteria, the major criteria to be members of the community are respecting human being and adhering to the community norm. Adhering to these criteria, there were members who share geographical location and who do not share geographical location with the community. Members who do not share geographical location with the community (theme-13) were individuals who are members of the community but working in different places of the country and the accepted members from the United Nation, this result is in agreement with the study of [8], which showed that a community can exist beyond geographical borders as long as people share something in common.

Related to means of income in the community (theme-3), the community members cooperated and created different sources of income, such as: businesses, for example, shops, café, mill, traditional cloths store, guest house for tourists, and weaving workshops, which produces different traditional raiments.

Handicraft skill and environmental protection (theme-4), using their handicraft skill, they work environmentally friendly cooking hearth, which uses small amount of fire wood. Most of the materials such as: shelf, table, chair, and even bed made from some amount of wood and mostly through clay soil.

Once a year, the community celebrates the formation of the community on the last day of the year and first day of the Ethiopian New Year (theme-5). They celebrate gathering around a tree that is located at center of the village and pass those time on playing and relaxing.

In the marriage value of the community (theme-6a), there is no wedding ceremony, after signing for the marriage, the bride and the groom immediately go to their work. Their family gives the money for the married couples instead of expending it on wedding ceremony. This result is the same with Tilahun [4] findings about marriage value of the community, which indicated that, “Another distinctive feature in the community is that members do not celebrate any wedding ceremony. They believe that marriage ceremony is an extravagance which demolishes all the accumulated money of parents and couples within a few days. As a result, an informant of the member stated that they do not even make tea for any marriage celebration. The only required thing is that couples should confirm their agreement by putting their signature in front of a witness (the witness might be a female or male). The bride and the bridegroom are never given even a day to enjoy their marriage; they are expected to join the field work very soon.”

Related to divorce, there are reasons that the community agreed upon for making divorce (theme-6b), If one of them is sterile, or if there is sexual problem that cannot be recovered by treatment, and/or if there is barney that cannot be fixed by advising, the community may accept the divorce.

The community mourning value (theme-7), the community believes that mourning should be in lifetime, through sympathy people should help each other. If it happened, only the assigned persons go to the mourning place to attend the funeral. After the burial, the community members bring the mourners to work place, not assuming that the mourners will do work, but to keep their mental health from the side effects of exaggerating mourning.

The community religious view (theme-8), the community members believe that they are believers in one god. There is no a single mosque or church in the community. Because they believe God is with them and they can get everywhere. This result is closer to the finding of Solomon [4], which indicated that the community does not have religion, but faith or belief. They believe in the existence of supernatural force or creator of earth and heaven. They do not give a name for this supernatural force … but, they accept prayer for the creator individually. The result also agreed with the study of Tilahun [5], which indicated that, “They believe that religion means being obeyed to the single super natural force. So, if there is a full consent for the presence of one creator, dividing him and the doctrine by giving different names is wrong of human beings.”

Gender equality (theme-9), 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 what all the males work including working outside the home. This result agreed with the finding of Solomon [4], which said “in ‘Awramba’ community the role of men and women is identical.”

In the community, honesty is one asset. In the commitment to be honest (theme-10a), if a person finds anyone’s lost property, he/she should return to the owner. If he/she did not get the owner, he/she should give to the committee that is already established to do this responsibility. In the community, taking people’s money is a crime.

Commitment for the scheduled meetings (theme-10b), the community has family meeting in every 15 days during the night time, meeting once a month at each working institution to plan and put solutions for problems if they faced related to their work. And once in every 6 months, this meeting is the general meeting, in which all the community members participate. The family meeting result was confirmed by the finding of Tilahun [5], which says, “There is a regular discussion program in which groups of two or more families meet together at every 15 days to evaluate their plan and control the behavior of members. It usually takes place at night when all members come back from their field work and after daily activities are nearly over.”

Ways of handling conflict (theme-11), there is an established committee to solve, if any conflict happens among the community members. If the conflict happens, they consider it as ideas conflict rather as individual, solve on the following way: first, the individuals discuss on the issue, to understand each other and in order to solve the problem. Second, if they cannot, they take the issue to the grievance listener committee and try to solve it. Third, if the problem is serious and the committee cannot solve it, the issue is taken to the “woreda” court. Almost all the problem solved at individual level.

The community elder care (theme-12a), the community supports the elders in two ways: one is in their home, and in the elder’s care center. They use two sources of income to support elders: one is income collected from the tourists as an entrance fee, and the second way is through the community members’ work 1 day a week for this purpose.

Preschool and moral education in the community (theme-12b), in the preschool, children learn moral education, such as avoiding lying, being captious, making conflict between individuals, and so on. At the end of every daily lesson, children say the slogan, which strengthens their moral behavior. This result is closer to the findings of Tilahun [5], which indicated that, “the preprimary school has a potential impact in reshaping students’ attitude. It makes them more ethical and freer to express their ideas according to the established local traditions.”

5. Interpretations of the study

5.1 Objective of the community

The data indicated that the following are the objectives of the “Awramba” community.

• To support each other

• To solve their problem

• To share their joy

Indicators of the above objectives are the following:

1. The indicator of the first objective is the different kinds of supports (financial, emotional, and the like) given to the community during grief time when there exist problems.

   For example, in “Awramba” community, there are different community-based organizations such as income generating activity association and elder care house, which serve as means of sources of income and support during the time of old age.

2. An indicator for the second objective can be an effort done to solve problems of school where children acquire knowledge and health center the place where people need to get medical care. Examples of the second objective in the community are the existence of public library, kindergarten, senior secondary (grade 9 to grade 10) school, and one health center built by the community.

3. The celebration of anniversary “Pagume 5 or 6” and New Year ceremony in the community can also be an indicator for the third objective.

The community mourning values (theme-7), religious view (theme-8), and gender equality (theme-9) results are agreed with the study by [4].

As the McMillan and Chavis sense of community theory is a major theory in community psychology, it is cited in more than 2500 different, scholarly publications, the researcher used it for the interpretation purpose.

McMillan and Chavis define sense of community as “a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together.”

In this key definition, they identify four major elements required for a sense of community: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and a shared emotional connection. By their definition, all four elements must be present to define a sense of community.

5.2 Membership

As the theory said there needs to be a defined territory or boundary, physical or not, something that shows who is a member and who is not. This can be a geographic marker, or it may involve similar interests, etc. These say who is in and who is out, who belongs here, and who does not. This is related with the “Awramba” community members living in the community village. And in addition to members of the community who share physical boundary, there are also members of the community who do not share geographical location, which is (theme-13).

In a community with clear boundaries, members experience emotional safety. This means a physical sense of safety from crime, etc. Relationally, it means a secure place to make friends, a safe space to speak truthfully. As the researcher got information from the community members, there is no a single police station or court in the village. And it also explained by the “Awramba” community’s value of being honest (theme-10a) and ways of handling conflict (theme-11).

A member who feels safe is more likely to make personal investment in the community. Personal investment is made in order to show commitment, and it’s made because one feels wanted by the community and entitled to be there. This idea of the theory also related with the “Awramba” community members’ commitments for scheduled meetings (theme-10b).

5.3 Influence

Related to influence, which refers to how the individual influences the community, and that community influences the views and actions of the person. Participant:2 said “If we miss to adhere to the norm of the community, there is advise in the first place provided by other community member for that.” This can show how the group influences individual members of that community. It also related to the community members adhering to the norms of the community.

5.4 Integration and fulfillment of needs

Shared values – this refers to deeper shared ideals that can be pursued through community involvement. This can be related with the children’s moral education providing in the school and at home within the “Awramba” community.

Community economy – refers to the exchange of resources within the group – this is what fulfills needs. Members participate in communities because their needs are met (need for status, knowledge, friendship, tools, anything). Needs are met through connections with other members. And individuals have to bring something to the table too, for the community to desire their membership. By taking differences from different people and putting them together, the community grows in value. The result of this trusting exchange is wealth, monetary or otherwise. This also related with the “Awramba” communities’ means of income (theme-3).

5.5 Shared emotional connection

McMillan and Chavis considered this the “definitive element for true community.” It involves a spiritual bond, not necessarily religious, and not easily defined, yet recognizable to those who share it. It’s the soul of the people. It’s hard to define or describe to outsiders. Members of the community know what this deep bond is for them. This last element is sometimes just thought of as love. It’s based on a shared story, a community narrative, the story of my people, and it will have some rituals around that, which remind them why they are together.

These concepts reflected on celebration of the formation of the “Awramba” community and New Year (theme-5), marriage and divorce (theme-6), mourning value (theme-7), and religious views of the community (theme-8) (Figure 11).

Figure 11.

The relationship between all themes and the four elements with sense of community.

6. Conclusion

Based on the information got from interview and observation, the researcher comes up with the following conclusions:

• Membership criteria of the community are based on adhering to the community norm.

• The community has a strong sense of community based on shared story, cooperative work, marriage and mourning values, religious view, gender equality, their commitment to be honest, and solving their problem by themselves.

• The emotional connection of the community is strengthened by their common celebration of the yearly anniversary and New Year and scheduled meeting.

• The moral education is also given in the school and at home meetings and in practice.

• The services of education, health, water, electricity, and telephone are available in the community.

Acknowledgments

First of all, my special appreciation goes to the “Awramba” community and all participants who kindly volunteered to be part of the study. I would like to thank my qualitative research methods course instructor Prof. Solomon Melese for the research topic approval and his valuable comments. I also want to appreciate my brother Yusuf Tsegaye who helped me in traveling to the community and during data collection.

Dear participant,

The purpose of this interview is to obtain data for a study of the “Awramba” community lifestyle and culture. You are selected for this study by assuming that you could give enough information on the issue. Therefore, your unreserved cooperation in providing the most genuine information will have a great significance to the study.

Please note that:

• Any information that you give is confidential.

• You are not required to mention your name during the interview.

• The information you give will be used for this research purpose only.

• It is up on your willingness to the interview; you have the right to participate or not to participate on the study and to interrupt the study.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

1. Gender _________

2. Age _______

3. Marital status _____________________________

4. Educational status _________________________

5. Occupation _______________________________

6. What is the name of this place?

   1. What is the name that the community members call themselves?

7. What is the name of the community?

   1. By who and when the community was established?

   2. How many members the community had during the establishment?

      Male _____________ Female ____________ Total ___________.

   3. What were the reasons that you think to increase members of the community?

8. Are you member of the community?

   1. How many times have you lived in the community?

   2. What is your role in the community?

   3. What is your plan for future about living in the community?

9. What do you think about being member of the community?

   1. How do you see the importance of the community to you and your importance for the community?

10. What are the sources of income of the community members?

11. What it seems culture of the community related to work?

    1. Is there work classification in the community? And what is it?

12. Is there work motivation in the community members?

    1. What are the reasons for it?

13. Is there a chance to get a person who does not have motivation for work in the community?

    1. What will be done for that?

14. How many members of the community do you know?

15. Are there criteria to be member of the community? 15a. What are they?

16. Does the individual influence the community? And does the community also influence the views and actions of members of the community?

    1. What is it? And how?

17. Based on the norms of the community, are there things that are allowed and forbidden for members of the community? 17a. What are they?

18. Who manages or controls norms of the community?

    1. In what way?

    2. What is the measure during violation of the norm?

19. What is the meaning of cooperation in this community?

    1. Is there cooperation between members of the community?

    2. If there is cooperation, what strengthens it in the community?

20. What is the meaning of honesty in the community?

    1. What it looks like in the community the experience of honesty?

    2. Is there the experience of teaching related to honesty?

    3. If there is experience, where does the teaching is delivered?

21. Is there moral education for children in the community? And how is it delivered?

22. Is there a custom that allows participation of all members of the community including children, youth, male, female, and elders?

    1. If it is there, what is it and in what way is it held?

23. Are there things or experiences shared by all of the community members?

    1. What are they?

24. What do you think about the safety of the neighborhoods in the community?

25. What is it about the leader follow-ups for the issues of the community?

26. In what way the community prevents crime and deviance?

    1. Are there police station and court in the community?

27. What is the relationship between government and the community?

28. Are there problems that affect the community directly or indirectly?

    1. What are they?

    2. Do the community members cooperate to reduce the problems? And how?

29. What are the marriage customs in the community?

30. What are the customs of mourning in the community?

31. Are there celebrations in the community?

    1. What are the times for the celebrations?

    2. In what way are they celebrated?

32. Are there customs or traditions at family or community level held in a fixed way at weekly, monthly, or yearly?

    1. What are they?

33. Is there a tradition of sharing money or things between the community members?

    1. How?

34. Are there chances of conflicts that occur between community members?

    1. What are the conflict resolution methods applied in the community?

35. Does globalization have an effect on the community members?

    1. What are the effects?

    2. Do the community members try to cope the effects?

    3. What are they?

36. What is the meaning of race in the community?

37. What is the religious view of the community?

1. Name of the community __________________________________.

2. Place _______________________ Date _______________ Hour ___________.

3. Observer ________________________________.

4. General environmental condition of the community ____________________.

5. Services available in the community __________________________________.

6. Others ___________________________________________________________