Asebe Teferi is a town in eastern Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Located in the Amhar Mountains, it has a latitude and longitude of 9°05′N 40°52′E and an altitude of 1826 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of the Mirab Hararghe Zone

Mirab Hararghe Zone

Mirab Hararghe is one of the 17 Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. Mirab Hararghe takes its name from the former province of Hararghe. Mirab Harerge is bordered on the south by the Shebelle River which separates it from Bale, on the southwest by Arsi, on the northwest by the Afar Region, on...

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Overview

Although by the 1930s a road existed which connected the town with the railroad station at Mieso

Mieso

Mieso is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Hararghe Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1394 meters above sea level.- Overview :...

, another road was constructed connecting Asebe Teferi with Metehara

Metehara

Metehara is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the Misraq Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 947 meters above sea level....

 with Swedish funds in 1966. Its market convenes on Thursdays. Mobile telephone service arrived at Asebe Teferi March 2009.

Nega Mezlekia

Nega Mezlekia

Nega Mezlekia is an Ethiopian writer who writes in English. His first language is the Amharic language, but since the 1980s he has lived in Canada so speaks and writes in English....

 described the town when he came to live there in 1977 as "a melancholic small town whose drab conditions are accentuated by the black roads, laid with crushed basaltic rocks" which "snakes along the edge of the main highway that links the city of Harar

Harar

Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari ethno-political division of Ethiopia...

 with the capital city". He describes the buildings in the town as unkept and rundown: "Generations of neglect were written into the faces of these derelict buildings. The walls had shed their meagre mud linings, and a few of the buildings tilted to one side or another, making it as dangerous a proposition to stand in their scant shade as to live in them." His opinion of the inhabitants is equally unkind, detailing how at night the marketplace was transformed into a stage where drunken peasants perpetuated blood feuds generations old. "Peasants didn't go to police or courts for justice. Blood called for blood."

Landmarks in Asebe Teferi include Igzeabeher abe and Ledeta Mariyam Bete Kristian, Chercher comprehensive secondary school, Mekonnen meda, Feres Megala,Total Mesgid, Gashegna camp, Adarash, Kuter ande, Kuter hulet, and Kuter soset temehert bet. It is the closest town to the Kuni-Muktar Wildlife Sanctuary.

History

Asebe Teferi was founded around 1924 by Fitawrari Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam

Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam

Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam was an Ethiopian politician and intellectual of russophile. He was the primary author of Ethiopia's July 16, 1931 constitution, which was influenced by the Japanese Meiji Constitution.- Life :Bahru Zewde includes Tekle Hawariat in the first generation of Ethiopians...

 on the site of a village named Chiro. It was the capital of the former "model" province of Chercher, created as part of Emperor Haile Selassie's campaign of modernization in the 1930s.

During the 1950s, the coffee plantations around the town were small yet yielded a relatively high production. In 1958, Asbe Teferi was one of 27 places in Ethiopia officially ranked as First Class Township. The Ethiopian News Agency

Ethiopian News Agency

The Ethiopian News Agency is the official news agency of the Government of Ethiopia. It is the oldest news organization in Ethiopia...

 reported in mid-July 1976 that negotiations held at Asbe Teferi by representatives of hostile groups of the Afars

Afar people

The Afar , also known as the Danakil, are an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, although some also inhabit the southern point of Eritrea.-Early history:...

 and Issa

Issa (clan)

The Issa are a Somali clan, a sub-clan of the Dir. The Issa primarily reside in Djibouti, the extreme northwestern fringe in the Awdal district of Somaliland in northern Somalia, as well as the Shinile Zone located in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.-Lineage:...

s had led to a peace agreement. When Nega Mezlekia visited the town the following year, he learned that the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party

Founded in April 1972, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party was a prominent Marxist-Leninist organization in Ethiopia during the 1970s. It is also known as "Ihapa" from the acronym in Amharic...

 and Oromo National Liberation Movement were more active around Asebe Teferi than in the rest of the province. "There was a strong peasant base around the town that provided a great deal of support for the party. The forest cover in the areas nearby furnished hideout." However, when he returned in 1978, he found the town far more peaceful. "It seemed that most of the threatening political opponents of the regime were dead, in exile or rotting in prison, and the going was good for those in power."

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

, in 2005 Asebe Teferi has an estimated total population of 33,420, of whom 16,997 were males and 16,423 were females. The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 18,678 of whom 9,218 were males and 9,460 were females. It is the largest town in Chiro

Chiro (woreda)

Chiro is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mirab Hararghe Zone, Chiro is bordered on the south by Kuni, on the west by Guba Koricha, on the northwest by Mieso, on the north by Doba, on the northeast by Tulo, and on the east by the Galetti River which separates it...

woreda.