It looks trivial when people are heard of saying that they are going to pay Edir fee as there is an already fixed amount levied on each and every member of this social glue. It always aims at linking, believing and participating with a view to fostering an interactive and direct effect of social camaraderie.
After a long time function of solely providing the deceased with funeral performance, a pioneer social cohesion—Edir—has started providing the public, especially its defined members, with a number of social, economic, cultural and developmental aspects.
Even they are attested cooperative when the sovereignty of the country is seriously compromised. Edirs at all parts of the country have now been contributing their great share to the effort geared towards preparing military rations and fostering logistical support thereby helping the defense declaring victory. This too is a clear manifestation of the promotion of these social associations to the transformed trajectory and the proliferation of their functions beyond funeral purposes.
Edirs have recently commended actions to developmentally benefit the needy. Yes, they are nonpolitical associations having unintended but important consequences for citizens’ participation in public affairs.
This writer asked Tsegaye Alebachew, an Edir coordinator at Addis Mender around Ayat, Lemi Kura Sub City, about the significance of Edir apart from bedecking the funeral ceremony of the departed accompanying their family.
He said, “Edirs do not function these days as what they did earlier; rather they have added value to the deed they have done so far and continue running a range of developmental and life changing undertakings. Being Ethiopians is now reflected through Edirs without any exaggeration. Through them, people share ideas, enrich them and change into productive matters when they are assembled to commiserate with the families of the dead ones. Besides, they help the destitute to have a good life fulfilling what is required, financially support those who are incapable of doing business as a result of lack of startup capital, and undertake various developmental activities benefiting their members and the entire community at large. This is really the modern face of Edirs.”
According to him, Edirs are becoming the best glues of social cohesion irrespective of religion, place of origin; gender and social status in Ethiopia and helping the community embraced with them gain a range of advantages like supporting one another at bad times, sharing happiness at good times and expanding various developmental activities.
“Interestingly, the associational activities—entrenched within social networks and sustained by confidence in the motives of others—have encouraged and facilitated participation in civic life. Such magnificent moves, in the modern world, aim at assessing the relative impact of different types of associational activities (informal socializing, public attendance, and religious participation), examining interactive relationships between these activities and generalized interpersonal trust and fostering the ties among members and their families,” he added.
He further elucidated that all these associational activities are significantly contributing to civic engagement. Furthermore, all interactions between the social associations and social trust are significant, indicating that those involved in associational activities are even more likely to become civic participants when they hold trusting attitudes toward others.
He also said that in an organized society, there is stability and change. Stability is the condition of equilibrium among the parts of society. It is the state of smooth functioning. During this condition, the social problems as well as ups and downs among the community decrease as the state of leading life in a very harmonious way prevails.
Without a shadow of doubt, change is the dynamic condition of society as the stronger the social bond among the community the brighter their future might be. Besides, an organized society is capable of coming up with all the requirements of social needs and necessities.
As far as Tsegaye’s concerns along this line are concerned, as abrupt changes in the form of revolution disrupt the existing social order and disorganization occurs in society, the establishment of fertile bonds such as Edirs is instrumental in converting the evils to potential opportunities to come up with a stable, productive and competent citizenry via sharing constructive aspects. That is why it is possible to say Edirs have now started functioning beyond strengthening social cohesion among the community.
“As organization is arranging of parts into its whole, social associations such as the concept under discussion are fitted themselves into the group according to their positions, and this participation of individuals into groups is social organization,” said Zehara Abdulmalik, a Sociology and Social Anthropology graduate from Addis Ababa University.
According to Zehara, the whole society is a big organization in which individuals, groups and institutions partake. It is a vast network of social relationship like the parts of a watch organized together. The groups fit themselves in interaction with other groups giving shape to society by association. Edir is becoming a clear manifestation of such a vivid fact within the society, indeed.
She further elucidated that Edirs can be categorized under social organizations as parts of the community in a given nation with their own peculiar features quoting Duncan Mitchell’s saying, “Social organization means the interdependence of parts which is essential characteristic of all enduring collective entities, groups, communities and societies.”
As to her, individuals and groups interrelated together to create social organization. It is the result of social interaction among people and the network of social relationships in which individuals and groups participate.
She further said that Edirs are parts of a social system, as it is an ongoing unit developed by the interdependence of its elements. A system assigns different functions to its elements. These elements have mutual relationship, supporting one another. These different functions performed by different parts with the help of one another make the whole a system and this interrelation among its parts is called society.
“There are status and social roles to be dealt with. Individuals in a social organization perform their activities according to their social positions. True, activities done in Edirs are called roles of the members since individuals perform their roles accordingly. Therefore, a role is the basis of social participation here. Activities that involve individuals in public events or situate them in public spaces may encourage some recognition of the value of a larger community and reinforce sense of belonging to that community. In addition, they may observe community-building efforts by other people in these contexts.
She added that furthermore, informal socializing has been shown to help individuals respond to community needs and problems by facilitating participation in neighborhood meetings and enhancing efficacy on vicinity issues. Indeed, when the frequency of interaction with friends and neighbors is used as a measure of informal socializing, it is found to be related to volunteering, even after controlling formal associational activities.
“Most importantly, trusting attitudes moderates the influence of social associations on collective actions. That is, the contribution of social associations to civic participation is not equivalent across all individuals. Rather, people who hold trusting attitudes toward others are more likely to extend their associational activities into civic participation. Trusting attitudes may generate participation because this belief in the motives of others may encourage civically oriented individuals whether it is due to their demographic attributes, certain attitudes, or experiences to become even more receptive to opportunities to help others,” she underscored.
Zehara also stated that social capital must pay particular attention to the intersection of micro individual civic attitudes with mega social network connections. This indicates that social networks work in concert with interpersonal trust like what Edirs function is to draw people into civic life.
In a nutshell, the cultivation of active citizenship may be partially an outcome of the interplay between communal attitudes and grand social connections. If truth be told, networks of association, both formal and informal, may work with a range of civic virtues to encourage engagement in various societal interactions such as helping one another to make a difference, pushing people to the next level of success and undertaking numerous development tasks apart from carrying out funeral rituals.
Correct, Edirs are really transforming themselves in Ethiopia since many promising activities among the society are unusually being through, and they will be taken for granted and nurtured as cultures—really transformation!
BY MENGESHA AMARE
The Ethiopian Herald 10 August 2021
