Benishangul-Gumuz Region
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2021) |
Benishangul-Gumuz Region
ቤንሻንጉል ጉሙዝ | ||
---|---|---|
Chief Administrator Ashadli Hassan | | |
Area | ||
• Total | 50,699 km2 (19,575 sq mi) | |
• Rank | 7th | |
[1] | ||
Population (2017) | ||
• Total | 1,127,001[2] | |
• Rank | 9th | |
ISO 3166 code | ET-BE | |
HDI (2019) | 0.476[3] low · 7th of 11 |
Benishangul-Gumuz (
The region has faced major challenges to economic development, due to lack of transportation and communications infrastructure. The Abay River (Blue Nile) divides Benishangul-Gumuz, and there was no bridge crossing it until 2012. The major road that connects the
Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the
In the previous census, conducted in 1994, the region's population was reported to be 460,459 of which 233,013 were men and 227,446 were women. Rural population was 424,432, while the urban population was 36,027. The five largest ethnic groups in Benishangul-Gumuz were the Berta (27%),
According to the CSA, as of 2004[update], 27.23% of the total population had access to
There are 2 refugee camps and 1 transit center, housing 36,440 refugees from Sudan and South Sudan, located in Benishangul-Gumuz region.[10]
Religion
Ethnic groups
Some of ethnic groups native to the Benishangul-Gumuz region are:
- Assosa Zone
- Gumuz, mostly in Kamashi Zone
- Kwama, mostly in Mao-Komo special woreda
- Shinasha, mostly in Metekel Zone
- Amhara people,mostly in Metekel Zone
- Agew people, mostly in Metekel Zone
- Mao, mostly in Mao-Komo special woreda
- Bambasi, mostly in Bambasi (woreda)
Five of these ethnic groups (Berta, Gumuz, Shinasha, Mao and Kwama) are granted the exclusive right to non-territorially functioning indigenous councils.[12]
History
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2021) |
Like the
Little is known about its history before the 19th century.[15] Archaeologists have found sites that they date to the end of the 1st millennium BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium AD and assign them to the forerunners of today's Komuz-speaking ethnic groups. Finds attributing them to the Berta date from the 17th to 20th centuries and are mainly located on mountains, hills and in rocky areas that are easy to defend. It was not until the mid-20th century that Berta also settled in the lowlands, as slave hunts and armed conflict had ended.[16]
The area lay as a "buffer zone" or "no man's land" between southern
According to Negasso Gidada, Oromo penetration into the region began in the mid-18th century.[17]
In the first quarter of the 19th century, Arab traders arrived from Sennar, which was occupied by Ottoman Egypt from 1821. These traders married into the Berta upper class and thus gained political influence. By the middle of the century, the waṭāwiṭ, the descendants of Arabs and Berta, had become the new ruling class. They also began to spread Islam among the Berta. Various trade routes met in Benishangul, and local gold and Ethiopian amole (salt bars) were exchanged for slaves, cattle, horses, iron, civet, musk, coffee, ivory and honey (which also came from the Oromo areas of Sibu and Leeqaa). Luxury goods such as textiles and glass beads were imported via Sudan.[15][14]
Later in the 19th century, Benishangul was affected by the Mahdi uprising.[13] In the late 19th century, Ethiopia, under Menelik II, annexed the Sultanates of Beni Shangul and Gubba (Qubba in Arabic) at the behest of Abdallahi ibn Muhammad of Sudan who feared the British would occupy it.[18] In 1898, Asosa became the political and economic capital.[19] Until the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s, the area supplied gold and slaves to the central government on a large scale. Slaves were also smuggled into Sudan across the border, which was established in 1902.[14]
Under the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, who ruled Ethiopia from 1974, some 250,000 drought- and famine-stricken peasants from the highlands—mostly Amharas from Wollo province—were relocated to Benishangul-Gumuz from 1979 and especially in the mid-1980s.[14][20]
Resistance to the Mengistu regime here came mainly from the Berta. In addition, the
In 2019, the
Agriculture
The CSA of Ethiopia estimated in 2005 that farmers in Benishangul-Gumuz had a total of 307,820 head of cattle (representing 0.79% of Ethiopia's total cattle), 65,800 sheep (0.38%), 244,570 goats (1.88%), 1,770 mules (1.2%), 37,520 asses (1.5%), 732,270 poultry of all species (2.37%), and 166,130 beehives (3.82%).[22]
Over 60% of this region is covered with forest, including bamboo, eucalyptus and rubber trees, incense and gum forests as well as the indigenous species. However, due to increased population which has led to the widespread destruction of the canopy, authorities announced a campaign on 8 June 2007 to plant 1.5 million seedlings over the next two months to replenish this resource.[23]
Chief Administrator of the Region
Party | Time period | |
---|---|---|
Attom Mustapha | BPLM | after 1991 |
Abdu Mohammad Ali | BPLM | 1990s |
Ateyb Ahmed | BPLM | 1990s - 1995 |
Yaregal Aysheshum | B-GPDUF | July 1995 - November 2008 |
Ahmed Nasir Ahmed | B-GPDUF | November 2008 - May 2016 |
Ashadli Hasen | B-BGDP | June 2016 – present |
(This list is based on information from Worldstatesmen.org, John Young,[24] and the Ethiopian News Agency website[25])
Administrative zones
Like other regions in Ethiopia, Benishangul-Gumuz is subdivided into administrative zones.
See also
Notes
- ^ "2011 National Statistics". Archived from the original on March 30, 2013.
- ^ a b Population Projection of Ethiopia for All Regions At Wereda Level from 2014 – 2017. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency. Archived from the original on 6 June 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Archived from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
- ^ John Young "Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition" Archived 2018-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Modern African Studies, 37 (1999), p. 342
- ^ "State repairs 600 km roads"[permanent dead link], Ethiopian News Agency 28 July 2009 (accessed 1 November 2009)
- ^ Census 2007 Tables: Benishangul-Gumuz Region Archived January 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Tables 2.1, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.
- WolloProvince.
- ^ "Households by sources of drinking water, safe water sources" Archived March 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine CSA Selected Basic Welfare Indicators (accessed 28 January 2009)
- ^ Macro International Inc. "2008. Ethiopia Atlas of Key Demographic and Health Indicators, 2005." (Calverton: Macro International, 2008) Archived 2010-11-05 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 2, 3, 10 (accessed 28 January 2009)
- ^ "Displaced Sudanese". Archived from the original on 2012-01-17. Retrieved 2012-05-23., The UN Refugee Agency website
- ^ "FOREWORD". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
- ^ Dessalegn, Beza. "Experimenting with Non-Territorial Autonomy: Indigenous Councils in Ethiopia". Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 18, nr 2 (2019): 3–23.
- ^ a b c d John Young, "Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition", Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 37/2, June 1999
- ^ a b c d Alessandro Triulzi: "Beni Šangul" in: Siegbert Uhlig (Hrsg.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Band 1, 2003, ISBN 3-447-04746-1
- ^ Journal of African History, 16 (1975), pp. 55–71
- ^ Alfredo González-Ruibal, Víctor M. Fernández Martínez: "Exhibiting Cultures of Contact: A Museum for Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia" Archived 2011-01-24 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 456 kB), Stanford Journal of Archaeology, 5 (2007), pp. 61–90
- ^ Negasso Gidada: History of the Sayyoo Oromoo of Southwestern Wallaga, Ethiopia from about 1730 to 1886, Addis Abeba 2001 (cited in González-Ruibal and Fernández Martínez)
- from the original on 2023-01-06. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
- ^ Alessandro Triulzi, "Asosa", in: Siegbert Uhlig (Hrsg.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Band 1, 2003, ISBN 3-447-04746-1
- ^ Alex de Waal, Africa Watch: Evil Days: 30 Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia, 1991, ISBN 978-1-56432-038-4 (pp. 317f., 322–324, 326, 328)
- ^ Paulos Chanie, "Clientelism and Ethiopia's post-1991 decentralisation", Journal of Modern African Studies 45/3 (2007)
- ^ "CSA 2005 National Statistics" Archived November 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Tables D.4 - D.7.
- ^ Ethiopia: Tackling environmental challenges with trees Archived 2007-06-12 at the Wayback Machine (IRIN)
- ^ Young, "Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier", p. 334
- ^ "Benishangul Gumuz State Council appoints Ahmed Nasir as chief of state"[permanent dead link], Ethiopian News Agency, 4 November 2008
External links
- Map of Benishangul-Gumuz Region at UN-OCHA[permanent dead link]
- Map of Benishangul-Gumuz Region at DPPA of Ethiopia
- House of Federation Official Ethiopian Government List of Members