Nekemte 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 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 Misraq Welega Zone

Misraq Welega Zone

Misraq Welega is one of the 12 Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. This zone acquired its name from the former province of Welega...

 of the Oromia Region

Oromia Region

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

 (or kilil), Nekemte has a latitude and longitude of 9°5′N 36°33′E and an elevation of 2,088 meters.

Nekemte was the capital of the former Welega Province

Welega Province

Welega was a province in the western part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Nekemte. It was named for the Welega Oromo, who are the majority of the population within its boundaries....

, and is home to a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 of Wollega 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...

 culture. It is a burial place of Onesimoos Nasiib, a famous Oromo who translated the Bible to Oromo Language for the first time, in collaboration with Aster Geno. It is also the seat of an Apostolic Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

. The Federal government has announced that a university will be built in Nekemte, one of 13 planned for the entire country in the immediate future. It is served by an airport (ICAO code HANK, IATA NEK).

Nekemte is at the center of the road network for south-western Ethiopia. The first major road dates to the early 1930s, with a road that extended from the capital Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

 west through Addis Alem

Addis Alem

Addis Alem is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, west of Addis Ababa, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of about 2360 meters above sea level....

, although the road was passable only by lorries for the 255 kilometers between Addis Alem and Nekemte. A road connecting Nekemte to Gimbi

Gimbi

Gimbi is a town in western Ethiopia. Located in the West Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1845 and 1930 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Gimbi woreda....

, 110 kilometers in length, was part of the first stage of the Third Highway Program in 1963. Postal service for this city has been present as early as 1923. A branch of the Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority began providing electricity to the city by 1960. By 1957, phone service extended to the city.

History

Nekemte acquired importance when Bekere Godana and later his son Moroda Bekere made it the capital of their kingdom of Welega in the mid-19th century. Under Moroda's son Gebre Egziabher (birth name Kumsa Moroda), the town continued in its importance as it submitted to Shewa

Shewa

Shewa is a historical region of Ethiopia, formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire...

n rule. The Russian explorer Alexander Bulatovich

Alexander Bulatovich

Alexander Ksaverievich Bulatovich tonsured Father Antony was a Russian military officer, explorer of Africa, writer, hieromonk and the leader of imiaslavie movement in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.-Biography:...

 visited Nekemte 13 March 1897; in memoirs he describes its marketplace as "a very lively place and presents a motley mixture of languages, dress, and peoples", and carefully described the paintings in the town's newly-constructed Ethiopian Orthodox church. In 1905, a central government customs office was officially opened in Nekemte. Construction on a hospital began in 1927, and was completed in 1932 with Swedish funds as well as contributions from Ras Tafari (who later became Emperor Haile Selassie). It formally opened 16 February 1932, although it had already been in operation for eight months.

The artist Daniel Twafe was born in 1934 in or near Nekemte. He studied in the United States in 1955-1957 and in Paris in 1971. He made more sculptures than paintings and became employed at the National Museum in Addis Ababa. Another from in this area was Mamo Tessema, who was born in 1935. He was trained at the Handicraft School in the school and went to the USA for higher studies in 1958. He designed ceramics and also wrote some publications.

By 1935 Nekemte had become the most important town in Welega. There were nearly 70 foreign residents before 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...

, mostly merchants and missionaries. 23 importers-exporters had agencies there, most of whom were Indians

Indian diaspora in East Africa

The Indian diaspora in Africa refers to people of Indian origin living in Africa. Most Indians in Africa arrived in the 19th century as British indentured labourers, many of them to work on the Kenya-Uganda railway, while others had arrived earlier by sea as traders....

, but these also included two Greeks

Greeks in Ethiopia

The Greek community in Ethiopia today numbers about 500 persons and can be traced back to the 18th century. It is mainly located in the capital, Addis Ababa, and the city of Dire Dawa.-History:The name Ethiopia itself is Greek and means "of burned face"...

, a Lebanese

Lebanese diaspora

Lebanese diaspora refers to Lebanese migrants and their descendants who by choice or coercion emigrated from Lebanon and now reside in other countries....

, and an Armenian

Ethiopian Armenians

There is a small community of Armenians in Ethiopia, primarily in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.-Religion:The Armenian presence in Ethiopia is historic...

. The British explorer Dunlop, who spent four days of the same year in that town, noted that its central location on the main trade route between Addis Ababa and the Anglo-Sudan led to it having "developed enormously during the preceding few years, as the new school, warehouses, stores, and hospital testified".

During the Italian invasion

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...

, Nekemte was bombed by the Italians 5 July 1936; this included dropping 19 bombs on the recently constructed school complex of the local Swedish mission. Dejazmach Habte Maryam, governor of Welega, accepted the Italians and received Colonel A. Marone who arrived by air on 14 October and the troops of Colonel Malta who reached the town on 24 October, after having marched by foot and mule for twelve days from Addis Alem, which weakened Ras Imru Haile Selassie

Imru Haile Selassie

Leul Ras Imru Haile Selassie was an Ethiopian noble, soldier, and diplomat. He was also the cousin of Emperor Haile Selassie.-Biography:...

's attempts as Prince Regent to establish a center of resistance at Gore

Gore, Ethiopia

Gore is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located south of Metu in the Illubabor Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2085 meters....

. After his successful return to Ethiopia, on 20 May 1941 Emperor Haile Selassie visited Welega where fighting still continued and where Kebede Tesemma was in charge of the Arbegnoch. When he attempted to visit Nekemte, his party came under artillery fire.

A public address system was installed in the central square in Nekemte (and in ten other towns) in 1955, used for receiving transmission from Radio Addis Ababa and re-broadcasting it. In 1957 Haile Sellasie I School was opened, one of nine provincial secondary schools in Ethiopia and outside Eritrea. At that time Nekemte was still the end point of the telephone line westward. The Tafari Makonnen Leprosarium (founded that year) also had a home-school for children of leprous parents.

Head of State 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...

 visited Nekemte during a formal tour in March–May 1979. In that same year, over 300 Evangelical Christians had been imprisoned for political reasons.

Early in 1991, the Ethiopian Fourth Revolutionary Army had its headquarters at Nekemte. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement , the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's...

 captured Nekemte on 2 April 1991, as part of Operation Freedom and Equality (Duula Bilisummaa fi Walqixxummaa). In response, 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...

 (OLF) said in a broadcast on the Radio Voice of Oromo Liberation (Frankfurt am Main) on 15 April 1991: "The OLF strongly opposes the phrase: liberating Wellega or the Oromo nation. It is false for any alien force to say that it will liberate the Oromo nation."

After the Ethiopian trade mission in the Somaliland city of Hargeisa

Hargeisa

Hargeisa is a city in the northwestern Woqooyi Galbeed region of Somalia. With a population of approximately 2 million residents, it is the second largest city in the country. Hargeisa is the capital of Somaliland, a self-declared republic that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region...

 was hit by a suicide bomb attack, which killed at least four Ethiopian civilian lives on 29 October 2008, three human rights activists working for the Ethiopian Human Rights Council in Nekemte were arrested, but were released by 27 November.

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, this city has an estimated total population of 84,506 of whom 42,121 were males and 42,385 were females. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 47,258 of whom 22,844 were males and 24,414 were females. Nekemte is the largest city in Guto Wayu

Guto Wayu

Guto Wayu is one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq Welega Zone, Guto Wayu is bordered on the south by Nunu Kumba, on the southwest by Jimma Arjo and Diga Leka, on the west by Sasiga, on the northwest by Limmu and Gida Kiremu, on the northeast by Bila Seyo, on...

 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...

.

Further reading

• Alessandro Triulzi, "When Orality Turns to Writing: Two Documents from Wälläga, Ethiopia", Journal of African Cultural Studies, 18 No. 1, "Language, Power and Society: Orality and Literacy in the Horn of Africa" (June 2006), pp. 43-55