Shashamene (woreda)
Encyclopedia
Shashamene is one of the 180 woreda
s in the Oromia Region
of Ethiopia
. It is named after the administrative center of the woreda, Shashamene. Part of the Misraq Shewa Zone
located in the Great Rift Valley
, Shashamene is bordered on the south by the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, on the west by Seraro
, on the north by Arsi Negele
, and on the east by the Arsi Zone
. Other towns in Shashamene include Kuyera.
and Chelaka lie in Shashamene. A survey of the land in this woreda shows that 65% is arable or cultivable, 15% pasture, 2.4% forest
, and the remaining 16.6% is considered swampy, degraded or otherwise unusable. The main crops produced for consumption and cash were potato
es, corn
, wheat, barley and teff
. In 1996, horse beans and peas
were commonly grown, but by 2005 cultivation has mostly stopped because of theft; this has forced the locals to buy peas to prepare shiro
, a common dish. Another crop no longer grown is finger millet
(known as dagusa), because it takes a long time to cultivate and it demands labor year-around. Although Coffee
is also an important cash crop of this woreda, less than 20 square kilometers are planted with this crop.
Industry in the woreda includes one saw mill owned by the government, 76 small industries employing 249 people, 384 wholesalers 979 retailers and 630 service providers. There were 36 Farmers Associations with 21,545 members and 8 Farmers Service Cooperatives with 13,762 members. Shashamene has 40 kilometers of dry-weather and 91 all-weather road, for an average road density of 172 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 9% of the rural, 100% of the urban and 33% of the total population has access to drinking water
.
in 1961. By the time of the far more severe 1984 famine, the inhabitants had shifted to a primarily agricultural lifestyle, but due to lack of rain they suffered from a shortage of food. They lost most of their cattle during the drought due to lack of pasture and water in the fields, but did not receive relief during that famine. They were able to survive the famine only because of the resumption of rains which began 17 May 1984.
In 1991, following the flight of President Mengistu Haile Mariam
from Ethiopia, Oromo living in Turufe Kecheme kebele
drove out non-Oromo settlers in the kebele for their land. This was primarily aimed at Kambaata settlers, but Amharas were also victims of the violence. The Tigrayan settlers resisted at the time because they were armed.
in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 339,981, of whom 171,161 were males and 168,820 were females; 105,929 or 31.16% of its population are urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 32.1%. With an estimated area of 759.53 square kilometers, Shashamene has an estimated population density of 447.6 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 181.7. It is the most densely populated woreda in the Misraq Shewa Zone.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 229,562, of whom 113,510 were men and 116,052 women; 59,219 or 25.80% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. The five largest ethnic groups reported in Shashamene were the Oromo
(74.11%), the Amhara
(9.26%), the Welayta
(5%), the Kambaata
(2.3%), and the Soddo Gurage (2.13%); all other ethnic groups made up 7.2% of the population. The predominant clan of the Oromo people in this woreda are the Arsi Oromo
. Oromiffa
was spoken as a first language by 71.7%, 18.23% spoke Amharic
, 3.49% Welayta
, 1.52% Kambaata
, and 1.14% spoke Sebat Bet Gurage
; the remaining 2.02% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Moslem
, with 69.38% of the population reporting they practiced that belief, while 23.51% of the population said they were Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, 5.62% were Protestant
, and 1.05% were Roman Catholic
.
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 Oromia Region
Oromia Region
Oromia is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia...
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...
. It is named after the administrative center of the woreda, Shashamene. Part of the Misraq Shewa Zone
Misraq Shewa Zone
Misraq Shewa is one of the 12 Zones of the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. This zone takes its name from the kingdom or former province of Shewa. Misraq Shewa is located in the middle of Oromia, connecting the western regions to the eastern ones...
located in the Great Rift Valley
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...
, Shashamene is bordered on the south by the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, on the west by Seraro
Seraro
Seraro is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq Shewa Zone located in the Great Rift Valley, Seraro is bordered on the south and west by the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, on the north by Lake Shala, and on the east by Shashamene; its...
, on the north by Arsi Negele
Arsi Negele (woreda)
Arsi Negele is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. It is named after its administrative center, Arsi Negele. Part of the Misraq Shewa Zone located in the Great Rift Valley, Arsi Negele is bordered on the south by Shashamene, on the southwest by Lake Shala which separates it...
, and on the east by the Arsi Zone
Arsi Zone
Arsi is one of the 12 zones of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia. Arsi is also the name of a former province. Both the Zone and the former province are named after a subgroup of the Oromo, who inhabit both...
. Other towns in Shashamene include Kuyera.
Overview
Except for the eastern portion, the altitude of this woreda ranges from 1500 to 2300 meters above sea level; Mount Abaro is the highest point. Rivers include the Dedeba Tina, Melka Oda and Laftu; small parts of Lakes AwasaLake Awasa
Lake Awasa is an endorheic basin in Ethiopia, located in the Rift Valley south of Addis Ababa. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the lake is 16 km long and 9 km wide, with a surface area of 129 square kilometers...
and Chelaka lie in Shashamene. A survey of the land in this woreda shows that 65% is arable or cultivable, 15% pasture, 2.4% forest
Forestry 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 the remaining 16.6% is considered swampy, degraded or otherwise unusable. The main crops produced for consumption and cash were potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, wheat, barley and 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....
. In 1996, horse beans and peas
PEAS
P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....
were commonly grown, but by 2005 cultivation has mostly stopped because of theft; this has forced the locals to buy peas to prepare shiro
Shiro (food)
Shiro is a homogenous stew whose primary ingredient is powdered chickpeas or broad bean meal. It is often prepared with the addition of minced onions, garlic and depending upon regional variation, ground ginger...
, a common dish. Another crop no longer grown is finger millet
Finger millet
Eleusine coracana, commonly Finger millet , also known as African millet or Ragi is an annual plant widely grown as a cereal in the arid areas of Africa and Asia. E...
(known as dagusa), because it takes a long time to cultivate and it demands labor year-around. Although Coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
is also an important cash crop of this woreda, less than 20 square kilometers are planted with this crop.
Industry in the woreda includes one saw mill owned by the government, 76 small industries employing 249 people, 384 wholesalers 979 retailers and 630 service providers. There were 36 Farmers Associations with 21,545 members and 8 Farmers Service Cooperatives with 13,762 members. Shashamene has 40 kilometers of dry-weather and 91 all-weather road, for an average road density of 172 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 9% of the rural, 100% of the urban and 33% of the total population has access to drinking water
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...
.
History
The oral history of the inhabitants of this woreda begins with a severe famine around 1850, known as Rukisa (Arsi Oromiffa "hunger"), when the cattle developed diarrhea and "the Oromo in the area ate horse and donkey meat as a result of famine." At that time the inhabitants were primarily pastoralists. Around 1935, the gebbar system was imposed by the naftagna and balabat landowners, which led 95% of the farmers becoming tenants. Then in 1945, new crops were introduced to local farmers, which included finger millet, teff, wheat and coffee. Local elders remember "Shenqute's Famine" in 1957, locally known as Rukissa Qallo (the thin famine), when they were still pastoralists; these elders also recalled the shocks of the earthquake at KarakoreKarakore
Karakore is a town in northeastern Ethiopia. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1696 meters above sea level....
in 1961. By the time of the far more severe 1984 famine, the inhabitants had shifted to a primarily agricultural lifestyle, but due to lack of rain they suffered from a shortage of food. They lost most of their cattle during the drought due to lack of pasture and water in the fields, but did not receive relief during that famine. They were able to survive the famine only because of the resumption of rains which began 17 May 1984.
In 1991, following the flight of President Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam is a politician who was formerly the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991...
from Ethiopia, Oromo living in Turufe Kecheme kebele
Kebele
A kebele is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia similar to ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people...
drove out non-Oromo settlers in the kebele for their land. This was primarily aimed at Kambaata settlers, but Amharas were also victims of the violence. The Tigrayan settlers resisted at the time because they were armed.
Demographics
Based on figures published 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...
in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 339,981, of whom 171,161 were males and 168,820 were females; 105,929 or 31.16% of its population are urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 32.1%. With an estimated area of 759.53 square kilometers, Shashamene has an estimated population density of 447.6 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 181.7. It is the most densely populated woreda in the Misraq Shewa Zone.
The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 229,562, of whom 113,510 were men and 116,052 women; 59,219 or 25.80% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. The five largest ethnic groups reported in Shashamene were 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...
(74.11%), 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...
(9.26%), the Welayta
Welayta people
Wolayta is the name of an ethnic group and its former kingdom, located in southern Ethiopia. According to the most recent census , they number 1.7 million people or 2.31 percent of the country's population, of whom 289,707 are urban inhabitants...
(5%), the Kambaata
Kambaata
Kambaata is the name of the people who speak the Kambaata language. It was a province of Ethiopia beginning in the early 15th century and ending in the mid-17th century before Ethiopian rule was once again established under Emperor Menelek II...
(2.3%), and the Soddo Gurage (2.13%); all other ethnic groups made up 7.2% of the population. The predominant clan of the Oromo people in this woreda are the Arsi Oromo
Arsi Oromo
Arsi Oromo is one of the branches of the Oromo people inhabiting the Oromia Region, mainly in the Arsi and Bale Zones, and partly in the Misraq Shewa Zone. They claim to have descended from a single individual called Arse...
. 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...
was spoken as a first language by 71.7%, 18.23% spoke 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...
, 3.49% Welayta
Welayta language
Wolaytta is an Omotic language spoken in the Wolaita Zone and some parts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia. The number of speakers of this language is estimated at 2,000,000 ; it is the native language of the Welayta people...
, 1.52% Kambaata
Kambaata language
Kambaata is a Highland East Cushitic language, part of the larger Afro-Asiatic family and spoken by the Kambaata. Dialects are Donga, Kambaata and Tambaro. It is one of the official languages of Ethiopia. The language has a large number of verbal affixes. When these are affixed to verbal roots,...
, and 1.14% spoke Sebat Bet Gurage
Sebat Bet Gurage language
Sebat Bet is a Gurage language, spoken in several dialects found in the western Gurage Zone:*Chaha is spoken in Cheha woreda, and is the best studied of these dialects;*Ezha is spoken in Ezhana Wolene woreda,...
; the remaining 2.02% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Moslem
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...
, with 69.38% of the population reporting they practiced that belief, while 23.51% of the population said they were Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, 5.62% were Protestant
P'ent'ay
P'ent'ay or Pentay is a slang term widely used in modern Ethiopia, and among Ethiopians living abroad, to describe Ethiopian Christians who are not members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso, Roman Catholic or Ethiopian Catholic churches...
, and 1.05% were Roman Catholic
Roman Catholicism in Ethiopia
The Catholic Church in Ethiopia is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.The Ethiopian Catholic Church, the primary organization of Catholicism in the country, is especially close to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose doctrine and...
.