Dila, Ethiopia
Encyclopedia
Dilla is a market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
in southern 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 Gedeo Zone
Gedeo Zone
Gedeo is a Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of Ethiopia. This Zone is named for the Gedeo people, whose homelands lie in this zone...
in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR), and located on the main road from Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
to Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, this town has a longitude and latitude of 6°24′30"N 38°18′30"E with an elevation of 1570 meters above sea level.
Until the completion in the early 1970s of the tarmac road to the Kenya border, Dilla had been located at the southern end of the all-weather road from Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
and thus became the major transfer and marketing point for coffee grown farther south, particularly of the much-prized Yirga Cheffe
Irgachefe
Irgachefe is a town in central southern Ethiopia. Located in the Gedeo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of and an elevation between 1880 and 1919 meters above sea level...
varietal (see coffee varietals
Coffee varietals
Coffee varieties refers to the diverse forms derived through selective breeding or natural selection of coffee plants. In essence they represent subspecies of the several coffee species....
). It remains a major center of the coffee trade.
According to the SNNPR's Bureau of Finance and Economic Development, Dilla's amenities include digital telephone access, postal service, 24-hour electrical service, numerous banks, and a hospital. Dilla is the site of the Dilla College of Teachers' Education, which was founded in 1996 and was part of Debub University. The college become a full flagged University since 2007 and composed of more than 30 programs to Masters and bachelor degree,. A number of archeologically significant stelae fields are in the surrounding area, the most notable groups being those at Tutu Fella and Tutiti.
History
Around 1930, groups of Guji OromoGuji Oromo
The Guji Oromo are an ethnic Oromo group living in southern Ethiopia. They are part nomadic and part agrarian. According to a population projection from 2007, the total population of the Guji Oromo is above 5 million....
migrated into the area, and by the time a German ethnological expedition arrived, they had begun the process of becoming settled farmers. Shortly after the capture of Shashemene in May 1941, a mobile force, consisting of one company of the Natal Mounted Rifles
Natal Mounted Rifles
The Natal Mounted Rifles is an armoured regiment of the South African Army. As a reserve unit, it has a status roughly equivalent to that of a British Territorial Army or United States Army National Guard unit...
and the 6th KAR, with light tanks and armoured cars, moved forward towards Dilla. Almost to its own surprise, this scouting operation cut off the retreat of the 21st and 24th Italian Divisions, pinning them against the east side of Lake Abaya
Lake Abaya
Lake Abaya is a lake in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of Ethiopia. It was named Lake Margherita by the Italian explorer Vittorio Bottego, the first European commonly thought to visit the lake, to honor the wife of king Umberto I of Italy, Queen Margherita...
.
By 1958 Dilla was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as First Class Township. The Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia
Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia
Rail transport in Ethiopia currently consists only of a line from Djibouti to Dire Dawa. The line continues from Dire Dawa to Addis Ababa, but is no longer operational...
carried out surveys for extending the railway with a 310 km line from Adama
Adama
Adama , better known as Nazret or Nazreth , is a city in central Ethiopia and the previous capital of the Oromia Region. It is located in the Misraq Shewa Zone of Oromia, at at an elevation of 1712 meters, 99 km southeast of Addis Ababa...
to Dilla between 1960 and 1963. The government formed a Nazareth-Dilla Railway Development Corporation to support this new branch. Although the French government offered a loan to fund this new branch in 1965, and Yugoslav experts had studied and thought the project would be worthwhile, this project was never carried out.
Outside Dilla is Michille(ሚችሌ) hill, where a peasant uprising by the Gedeo people
Gedeo people
The Gedeo are an ethnic group in southern Ethiopia. The Gedeo Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region is named for this people...
was crushed in 1960. Gedeo elders, invited by Afanegus Eshate Gada to meet him and discuss their grievances with the feudal system they lived under, were ambushed and slaughtered by the army.
On 22 July 1998 there were violent clashes near Dila. The press published conflicting statements about who the parties were and how many had been killed. Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse said that about 140 people were killed and large numbers at least temporarily displaced.
On October 12 2008, Bekele Girma, an All Ethiopian Unity Party
All Ethiopian Unity Party
The All Ethiopian Unity Party is a political party in Ethiopia.At the last legislative elections on 15 May 2005, the party was part of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy that won 109 out of 527 seats....
(AEUP) activist, left AEUP's head office in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
to open an office in Dila. Despite having a letter from the National Election Board of Ethiopia
National Election Board of Ethiopia
The National Election Board of Ethiopia is an autonomous government agency which supervises the national elections of Ethiopia. The NEBE was established by Proclamation number 64/1992, and answers to the House of Peoples' Representatives....
requesting regional government officials to assist him in opening a local office, Dilla police chief Obsa Hundessa detained Bekele and refused to allow him to open an office in that town. Bekele was released in November.
Demographics
Based on figures from 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, Dilla has an estimated total population of 61,114 of whom 31,329 are men and 29,785 are women. The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 33,734 of whom 17,346 were men and 16,388 were women. It is the largest settlement in Wenago
Wenago (woreda)
Wenago is one of the 77 woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Gedeo Zone, Wenago is bordered on the south by Yirgachefe, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by the Sidama Zone, and on the east by Bule...
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...
.