Kebri Mangest is a town in southeastern 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 Borena Zone

Borena Zone

Borena is one of the 17 zones of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Borena is named after a tribe of the Oromo people. Borena is bordered on the south by Kenya, on the west by the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, on the north by Guji and on the east by the Somali Region. The...

 of the Oromia Region

Oromia Region

Oromia is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia...

, it has a latitude and longitude of 05°53′N 38°59′E with an altitude of 1758 meters above sea level.

Overview

Kebri Mangest is served by a network of roads. A new road to Shakiso

Shakiso

Shakiso is a town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the Gujii Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 1758 meters above sea level....

 was built around 1960. Two years later an all weather road reached the town from the north and a dry weather road south to Negele Boran

Negele Boran

Negele Borana is a town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the Guji Zone of the Oromia Region on the road connecting Addis Ababa to Dolo Odo, it has a latitude and longitude of with an altitude of about 1,475 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Liben woreda...

. This town has both telephone and postal service, and is supplied with electricity by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation from the national grid.

The gold mine near Kebre Mangest has been the most historically important gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 mine in Ethiopia since its opening in 1941; in 1944, for example, its revenue came to nearly a fifth of the total government budget. However in the public vocabulary, according to the Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde, the name of the town signified "terror both in the forcible recruitment of labour and in the conditions of penal servitude that prevailed in the labour camp."

Kebri Mangest was founded during the Italian occupation

Italian East Africa

Italian East Africa was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa...

; a British soldier who travelled through the area wrote in his memoirs that he remembered a "long, wooded valley with a few recently-built villas, the beginning of a new Italian settlement named Adola", as well as rumors that the Italians had found gold in the area.

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, this town has an estimated total population of 36,053 of whom 18,732 were males and 17,321 were females. The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 20,136 of whom 10,159 were males and 9,977 were females. It is the larger of two towns in Adolana Wadera

Adolana Wadera

Adolana Wadera is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Borena Zone, Adolana Wadera is bordered on the south by Liben, on the southwest by Odo Shakiso, on the west by Bore, on the north by the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, and on the east by...

 woreda

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...

.