Atsbi Wenberta
Encyclopedia
Atsbi Wenberta is one of the 36 woreda
s in the Tigray Region
of Ethiopia
. Located in the Misraqawi Zone
at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands
, Atsbi Wenberta is bordered on the south by the Debubawi (Southern) Zone
, on the southwest by Wukro
, and on the northwest by Saesi Tsaedaemba
, and on the east by the Afar Region
. The administrative center of this woreda is Atsbi
; other towns in Atsbi Wenberta include Haik Mesahil.
many slopes the soil is so highly eroded that even when rain falls, it can retain only a small amount of moisture. Nine of the 16 peasant associations in Atsbi Wenberta have an elevation of 2600 meters or higher, and are planted in barley, wheat, pulses like faba beans, and small ruminants like sheep are raised. The other seven peasant associations have an elevation below 2600 meters and are planted in teff
, wheat, and barley, and both livestock and apiculture are cultivated; 6729 bee colonies are reported in this woreda. A major cash crop are faba beans, and Atsi Wenbarta is an important supplier of sheep and goats for meat to the nearby towns of Wukro
, Adigrat
, and the city of Mek'ele
.
There are several local monolithic church
es in this woreda, which include Mikael Barka, and Mikael Imba. There are also several churches which were originally built in Aksumite times; these include Mikael Debre Selam and Zarema Giyorgis located northwest of Atsbi. One micro-finance institution operates in Atsbi Wenberta, the Dedebit Credit and Saving Institution SC, with two sub-branches in Atsbi which report to the office in Wukro. There are 16 multipurpose cooperatives in this woreda, one for each kebele
. However, these cooperatives have faced a number of problems, which include a failure to compete successfully with local private traders and the discovery after a 2004 audit of all of the cooperatives that 47,000 Birr
was missing.
(EPRP) in 1978. Local shifta
(or brigand
s) are said to have joined the EPRP and robbed woreda inhabitants, using the political organization as a cover. They killed at least one man known as Hagos Tesfu. However, when the EPRP left, the shifta remained in the area. The Derg
then organized the local people against these shifta, which resulted with one killed, one fleeing to the Afar Depression
, and four being executed. In 1980, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front
took control of the area, which resulted in numerous military campaigns by the Derg; woreda inhabitants were arrested or killed by the military, their livestock were killed and married women raped.
Atsbi Wenberta was one of nine woredas in Tigray most affected by a drought during 2008, requiring emergency food supplies requested for an estimated 600,000 people.
of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 112,341, an increase of 85,561 over the 1994 census, of whom 53,659 are men and 58,682 women; 11,144 or 9.92% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 1,758.11 square kilometers, Atsbi Wonberta has a population density of 63.90, which is greater than the Zone average of 56.93 persons per square kilometer. A total of 26,425 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.25 persons to a household, and 25,533 housing units.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 93,659 of whom 45,521 were men and 48,138 were women; 32,229 or 34.41% of its population were urban dwellers. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Atsbi Wenberta were the Tigrayan
(62.19%), the Amhara
(33.91%), and the Oromo
(2.24%); all other ethnic groups made up 1.66% of the population. Tigrinya
is spoken as a first language by 61.36%, 36.48% Amharic
, and 1.36% speak Oromiffa
; the remaining 0.8% spoke all other primary languages reported. 78.35% of the population said they were Ethiopian Christians, and 21.45% were Muslim
. Concerning education
, 14.76% of the population were considered literate, which is greater than the Zone average of 9.01%; 20.65% of children aged 7-12 were in primary school, which is more than the Zone average of 11.34%; 3.09% of the children aged 13-14 were in junior secondary school, which is more than the Zone average of 0.65%; 3.38 of the inhabitants aged 15-18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions
, 91% of the urban houses and 43% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; about 12% of the urban and 31% of the total had toilet facilities.
, and 6.11% was devoted to other uses. For the land under cultivation in this woreda, 69% was planted in cereals, 12.9% in pulses, 0.64% in oilseeds, and 2 hectares in vegetables. The total area planted in fruit trees was 186 hectares, while 1 hectare was planted in gesho. 74.65% of the farmers both raised crops and livestock, while 19.36% only grew crops and 5.99% only raised livestock. Land tenure in this woreda is distributed amongst 93.18% owning their land, 5.56% renting, and 1.28% holding their land under other forms of tenure.
Woreda
Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...
s in the Tigray Region
Tigray Region
Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...
of 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 Misraqawi Zone
Misraqawi Zone
Misraqawi is a Zone in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Misraqawi is bordered on the east by the Afar Region, on the south by Debubawi , on the west by Mehakelegnaw and on the north by Eritrea. Its highest point is Mount Asimba...
at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands
Ethiopian Highlands
The Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa...
, Atsbi Wenberta is bordered on the south by the Debubawi (Southern) Zone
Debubawi Zone
Debubawi is one of five Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Debubawi is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Mehakelegnaw , the north by Misraqawi and on the east by the Afar Region...
, on the southwest by Wukro
Wukro (woreda)
Wukro woreda, also known as Kilte Awulaelo, is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraqawi Zone, Wukro is bordered on the south by the Debubawi Zone, on the west by the Mehakelegnaw Zone, on the north by Hawzen, and on the east by Atsbi Wenberta. Wukro is the...
, and on the northwest by Saesi Tsaedaemba
Saesi Tsaedaemba
Saesi Tsaedaemba is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, Saesi Tsaedaemba is bordered on the south by Wukro, on the southwest by Hawzen, on the west by Ganta Afeshum, on the northwest by Gulomahda, on...
, and on the east by the Afar Region
Afar Region
Afar is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, and is the homeland of the Afar people. Formerly known as Region 2, its current capital is Asayita; a new capital named Semera on the paved Awash - Asseb highway is under construction....
. The administrative center of this woreda is Atsbi
Atsbi
Atsbi is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone of the Tigray Region, about 50 kilometers northeast of Qwiha, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2630 meters above sea level...
; other towns in Atsbi Wenberta include Haik Mesahil.
Overview
The elevation of this woreda varies from 918 to 3069 meters above sea level. Rivers in Atsi Wenberta are seasonal and flow only during the rainy season. There is no lake but there are small streams and ponds. The soil is seriously degraded, and there is no forest or woodland except in a few areas along the escarpment facing the Afar Region where scattered forest is visible. Irrigation is used in the few places where it is possible; the suitable sites are rare. Onmany slopes the soil is so highly eroded that even when rain falls, it can retain only a small amount of moisture. Nine of the 16 peasant associations in Atsbi Wenberta have an elevation of 2600 meters or higher, and are planted in barley, wheat, pulses like faba beans, and small ruminants like sheep are raised. The other seven peasant associations have an elevation below 2600 meters and are planted in teff
Teff
Eragrostis tef, known as teff, taf , or khak shir , is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to the northern Ethiopian Highlands of Northeast Africa....
, wheat, and barley, and both livestock and apiculture are cultivated; 6729 bee colonies are reported in this woreda. A major cash crop are faba beans, and Atsi Wenbarta is an important supplier of sheep and goats for meat to the nearby towns of Wukro
Wukro
Wukro is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi zone of the Tigray region on the Asmara-Addis Ababa highway, it is the administrative center of the district named after the town.- Overview :The rock-hewn churches around Wukro are the town's most distinctive landmarks; in the early...
, Adigrat
Adigrat
Adigrat is a city in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone at longitude and latitude with an elevation of 2457 meters above sea level, below a high ridge to the west, Adigrat is the last important Ethiopian city south of the border with Eritrea, and is considered to be a...
, and the city of Mek'ele
Mek'ele
Mek'ele , also transliterated as Makale, is a city in northern Ethiopia and the capital of the Tigray Region. It is located some 650 kilometers north of the capital, Addis Ababa, at latitude and longitude with an elevation of 2084 meters above sea level...
.
There are several local monolithic church
Monolithic church
A monolithic church or rock-hewn church is a church made from a single block of stone. They are one of the most basic forms of monolithic architecture....
es in this woreda, which include Mikael Barka, and Mikael Imba. There are also several churches which were originally built in Aksumite times; these include Mikael Debre Selam and Zarema Giyorgis located northwest of Atsbi. One micro-finance institution operates in Atsbi Wenberta, the Dedebit Credit and Saving Institution SC, with two sub-branches in Atsbi which report to the office in Wukro. There are 16 multipurpose cooperatives in this woreda, one for each kebele
Kebele
A kebele is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia similar to ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people...
. However, these cooperatives have faced a number of problems, which include a failure to compete successfully with local private traders and the discovery after a 2004 audit of all of the cooperatives that 47,000 Birr
Ethiopian birr
The birr is the unit of currency in Ethiopia. Before 1976, dollar was the official English translation of birr. Today, it is officially birr in English as well....
was missing.
History
The area of this woreda was occupied by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary PartyEthiopian 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...
(EPRP) in 1978. Local shifta
Shifta
Shifta is term used in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia for rebel, outlaw, or bandit. The word is derived from shúfto. Historically, shifta served as local militia in the lawless rural mountainous regions on the Horn of Africa...
(or brigand
Brigandage
Brigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand is a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery....
s) are said to have joined the EPRP and robbed woreda inhabitants, using the political organization as a cover. They killed at least one man known as Hagos Tesfu. However, when the EPRP left, the shifta remained in the area. The Derg
Derg
The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...
then organized the local people against these shifta, which resulted with one killed, one fleeing to the Afar Depression
Afar Depression
The Afar Triangle is a geological depression that is caused by the Afar Triple Junction which is part of the Great Rift Valley. It overlaps Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia. The Afar Triangle includes the Danakil Depression and the lowest point in Africa, Lake Asal...
, and four being executed. In 1980, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front
Tigrayan People's Liberation Front
The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front , known more commonly and sometimes pejoratively in Ethiopia as Woyane or Weyane is a political party in Ethiopia...
took control of the area, which resulted in numerous military campaigns by the Derg; woreda inhabitants were arrested or killed by the military, their livestock were killed and married women raped.
Atsbi Wenberta was one of nine woredas in Tigray most affected by a drought during 2008, requiring emergency food supplies requested for an estimated 600,000 people.
Demographics
Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical AgencyCentral 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...
of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 112,341, an increase of 85,561 over the 1994 census, of whom 53,659 are men and 58,682 women; 11,144 or 9.92% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 1,758.11 square kilometers, Atsbi Wonberta has a population density of 63.90, which is greater than the Zone average of 56.93 persons per square kilometer. A total of 26,425 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.25 persons to a household, and 25,533 housing units.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 93,659 of whom 45,521 were men and 48,138 were women; 32,229 or 34.41% of its population were urban dwellers. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Atsbi Wenberta were the Tigrayan
Tigray-Tigrinya people
Tigray-Tigrinya are an ethnic group who live in the southern, central and northern parts of Eritrea and the northern highlands of Ethiopia's Tigray province. They also live in Ethiopia's former provinces of Begemder and Wollo, which are today mostly part of Amhara Region, though a few regions...
(62.19%), the Amhara
Amhara people
Amhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...
(33.91%), and the Oromo
Oromo people
The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...
(2.24%); all other ethnic groups made up 1.66% of the population. Tigrinya
Tigrinya language
Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...
is spoken as a first language by 61.36%, 36.48% Amharic
Amharic language
Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working...
, and 1.36% speak Oromiffa
Oromo language
Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...
; the remaining 0.8% spoke all other primary languages reported. 78.35% of the population said they were Ethiopian Christians, and 21.45% were Muslim
Islam in Ethiopia
According to the latest 2007 national census, Islam is the second most widely practised religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with over 25 million of Ethiopians adhering to Islam according to the 2007 national census, having arrived in Ethiopia in 615...
. Concerning education
Education in Ethiopia
Education in Ethiopia has been dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. Prior to 1974, Ethiopia had an estimated illiteracy rate well above 90% and compared poorly with the rest of Africa in the provision of schools and...
, 14.76% of the population were considered literate, which is greater than the Zone average of 9.01%; 20.65% of children aged 7-12 were in primary school, which is more than the Zone average of 11.34%; 3.09% of the children aged 13-14 were in junior secondary school, which is more than the Zone average of 0.65%; 3.38 of the inhabitants aged 15-18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions
Water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia
Access to water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia is amongst the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and the entire world. While access has increased substantially with funding from external aid, much still remains to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the share of people...
, 91% of the urban houses and 43% of all houses had access to safe drinking water at the time of the census; about 12% of the urban and 31% of the total had toilet facilities.
Agriculture
A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 21,729 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 0.46 hectares of land. Of the 10,040 hectares of private land surveyed, 84.53% was under cultivation, 4.15% pasture, 3.95% fallow, 1.24% in woodlandForestry in Ethiopia
In the late nineteenth century, about 30% of Ethiopia was covered with forest. The clearing of land for agricultural use and the cutting of trees for fuel gradually changed the scene, and today forest areas have dwindled to less than 4% of Ethiopia's total land. The northern parts of the highlands...
, and 6.11% was devoted to other uses. For the land under cultivation in this woreda, 69% was planted in cereals, 12.9% in pulses, 0.64% in oilseeds, and 2 hectares in vegetables. The total area planted in fruit trees was 186 hectares, while 1 hectare was planted in gesho. 74.65% of the farmers both raised crops and livestock, while 19.36% only grew crops and 5.99% only raised livestock. Land tenure in this woreda is distributed amongst 93.18% owning their land, 5.56% renting, and 1.28% holding their land under other forms of tenure.