Gidami is a town in western 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...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of 08°59′N 34°37′E with an elevation between 1776 and 1928 meters above sea level. It is one of two towns in Jimma Gidami

Jimma Gidami

Jimma Gidami is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mirab Welega Zone, Jimma Gidami is bordered on the south by Anfillo, on the west by South Sudan, on the northwest by the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, on the north by Begi, on the east by Gawo Dale, 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...

.

History

Charles W. Gwynn wrote that he was detained at Gidami for a month in 1900, then the seat of Dejazmach Jote Talu, while making an official reconnaissance of the Ethiopia-Sudan border; Dejazmach Jote was absent from Gidami during his stay, but Gwynn later learned that Gidami "was distinguished for having stopped three European Expeditions in the course of a few years -- Bottego

Vittorio Bottego

Vittorio Bottego was an Italian army officer and one of the first Western explorers of Jubaland in the Horn of Africa , where he led two expeditions. Bottego was born in Parma....

's, Mangin's

Charles Mangin

Charles Emmanuel Marie Mangin was a French general during World War I.-Early career:...

, and my own."

By the early 1930s, Gidami was an important coffee market with two or three resident foreign traders. In 1938, the Guido described the town as a large village with many 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...

 in an area populated by 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...

, having a post office, telegraph and infirmary.

On 18 October 2006, Gidami and Beica

Beica

Beica is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, the town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1673 meters above sea level. Beica is the administrative center of Begi woreda.Beica has enjoyed telephone service since the 1930s...

 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 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, Gidami has an estimated total population of 5,007 of whom 2,545 are men and 2,462 are women. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 2,798 of whom 1,380 were men and 1,418 were women.