Welkite is a town in southwestern 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...

. The administrative center of the Gurage Zone

Gurage Zone

Gurage is a Zone in the Ethiopian Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region . This zone is named for the Gurage people, whose homeland lies in this zone. Gurage is bordered on the south by Hadiya on the west north and east by the Oromia Region, and on the southeast by Silte. Its highest...

 of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), this town has a latitude and longitude of 8°17′N 37°47′E and an elevation between 1910 and 1935 meters above sea level.

According to the Gurage Zone government, Welkite is one of 12 towns with electrical power, one of 11 with telephone service and one of nine that have postal service. The SNNPR's Bureau of Finance and Economic Development, adds that Welkite also had a bank branch and other financial institutions, as well as a hospital. An all-weather road was built in 1963 which connects Welkite to Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

 by way of Endibir

Endibir

Emdibir is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation between 2130 and 2164 meters above sea level...

.

At Welkite an extreme example of an attempt at eviction of tenants before the Ethiopian revolution is reported to have occurred. A retired colonel living in the area held title to 4,000 hectares, which some 500 tenants cultivated. Following a fertilizer demonstration by the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

' Food and Agriculture Organization

Food and Agriculture Organization

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...

 in 1969, the colonel decided to introduce modernized farming. At first he decided to modernize rapidly and announced that he was going to terminate the tenancy relationships with all of his tenants. The tenants, however, are said to have responded violently, attempting to stone their landlord one night as he left a bar in Welkite. The colonel then changed tactics, modernizing his lands piecemeal and evicting smaller numbers of tenants. By 1972 he had 160 hectares under tractor cultivation, and 140 tenant families were said to have been evicted. These people did not, however, leave the area, relying on the ensete

Ensete

Ensete, or Enset, is a genus of plants, native to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. It is one of the three genera in the banana family, Musaceae.- Domesticated enset in Ethiopia :...

 cultivations around their houses for a minimum of food.

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, Welkite has an estimated total population of 27,775 of whom 13,691 are men and 14,084 are women. The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 15,329 of whom 7,580 were men and 7,749 were women. It is the largest settlement in Goro

Goro, SNNPR (woreda)

Goro is one of the 77 woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. This woreda is named after one of the sub-groups of the Sebat Bet Gurage, the Goro...

 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...

. In the villages around Welkite there are believed to be about 1,000 speakers of Gumuz

Gumuz language

Gumuz is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. Most Ethiopian speakers live in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 live outside the town of Welkite...

, who are a Nilo-Saharan people whose homeland straddles the border between Ethiopia and Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

.