Beica 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...

. Located in the Mirab Welega Zone

Mirab Welega Zone

Mirab Welega is one of the 12 Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. This zone is named after the former province of Welega, whose western part lay in the area Mirab Misraq now occupies....

 of the Oromia Region

Oromia Region

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

, the town has a latitude and longitude of 9°20′N 34°29′E with an elevation of 1673 meters above sea level. Beica is the administrative center of Begi

Begi, Oromia (woreda)

Begi is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mirab Welega Zone, Begi is bordered on the south by Jimma Gidami, on the west and north by the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, on the northeast by Mana Sibu, on the east by Jarso, and on the southeast by Gawo Dale...

 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...

.

Beica has enjoyed telephone service since the 1930s. The school in Beica started in 1953 as an elementary school (grades one through six), and in 1975 was upgraded to a junior secondary school, also offering education in grades seven and eight. The town also hosted an unpaved airfield

Beica Airport

Beica Airport is an airport in Beica , Ethiopia . Located at an elevation of 1649 meters above sea level, this airport has one unpaved runway 1331 meters long. At present , it is abandoned.-Scheduled services:- External links :*...

 with regular flights by Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines , formerly Ethiopian Air Lines, often referred to as simply Ethiopian, is an airline headquartered on the grounds of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It serves as the country's flag carrier, and is wholly owned by the Government of Ethiopia...

, now abandoned and in state of disrepair, and has postal service.

History

The Dutch explorer Juan Maria Schuver

Juan Maria Schuver

Juan Maria Schuver was a Dutch explorer who was a native of Amsterdam....

 visited Beica during his first explorations between the White

White Nile

The White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile from Egypt, the other being the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, "White Nile" refers to the river formed at Lake No at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers...

 and Blue Nile

Blue Nile

The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile...

s (August 1881). He described the settlement as "a large village" that was recovering from a recent famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

, but at the time of his visit "with extensive plantations of durra, maize

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...

, angolib (a species of edible, sweet durra-stalk) and cabbage

Cabbage

Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...

. Every house had its small garden of tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

, beans, yams

Yam (vegetable)

Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...

 and shieta, the minute red pepper

Capsicum

Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...

."

By the 1930s, Beica had become the seat of Sheik Hojali, governor of Benishangul, and the major town of that region. 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...

 was reported to be found in the area. 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...

, the governor was Sheik Abd al-Khair.

The Oromo Liberation Front

Oromo Liberation Front

The Oromo Liberation Front , or OLF, is an organization established in 1973 by Oromo nationalists to promote self-determination for the Oromo people against what they call "Abyssinian colonial rule". It has been outlawed and labeled as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government...

 held their first national congress in Beica February, 1988, having taken control of much of the Ethiopian territory along the 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...

 border.

When the Benishangul-Gumuz and Oromia regions were established in 1992, the two regions disputed ownership of Beica, both wanting ownership. Benishangul-Gumuz's claim was based on two assertions: the first one was that Beica and its the territory had been part of the domain of Sheik Hojele; the second was that the earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Mao and Kwama people

Kwama people

The Kwama , are a Nilo-Saharan-speaking community living in the Sudanese-Ethiopian borderland, mainly in the Mao-Komo special woreda of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in, Ethiopia. They belong, culturally and linguistically, to the Koman groups, which include neighboring communities such as the Uduk,...

s, which were ethnic groups assigned to Benishangul-Gumuz. To resolve this dispute, the Transitional Government of Ethiopia

Transitional Government of Ethiopia

The Transitional government of Ethiopia was established immediately after the fall of the Dergue regime. It was led by Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. Zenawi remains the prime minister of Ethiopia to this day....

 organized a referendum in 1994; the majority of voters decided in favor of joining Oromia, and Beica was placed under that region later that year.

On 18 October 2006, Beica and Gidami

Gidami

Gidami is a town in western Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1776 and 1928 meters above sea level. It is one of two towns in Jimma Gidami woreda.- History :...

 were the setting for clashes between Muslims and Protestant Christians, resulting in 9 deaths, including the death of two Protestant preachers, and over 100 injured. In addition, 21 churches, one mosque, and dozens of houses were burned, leaving over 400 people homeless.

Demographics

Based on 2005 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...

, Beica has an estimated total population of 6,106 of whom 3,033 were males and 3,073 were females. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 3,415 of whom 1,645 were males and 1,770 were females.