Emdibir is a town south-west of

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

, in the central part of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. Located in the

Gurage Zone Gurage is a zone in the Central Ethiopia Regional State of Ethiopia. The region is home to the Gurage people. Gurage is bordered on the southeast by Hadiya and Yem Zone, on the northwest by Kebena Special Woreda, north and east by the Oromi ...

of the

Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR; ) was a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in southwestern Ethiopia. It was formed from the merger of five ''kililoch'', called Regions 7 to 11, following the ...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation between 2130 and 2164 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of

Cheha Cheha is one of the woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. This woreda is named after one of the sub-groups of the Sebat Bet Gurage, the Cheha. Part of the Gurage Zone, Cheha is bordered on the south by E ...

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

. According to the Gurage Zone local government, Emdibir is one of 12 towns with electrical power, one of 11 with telephone service and one of nine that have postal service. An all-weather road was built in 1963 by the

Gurage Road Association Gurage (, Gurage language, Gurage: ጉራጌ) are a Ethiopian Semitic languages, Semitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia.G. W. E. Huntingford, "William A. Shack: The Gurage: a people of the ensete culture" They inhabit the Gurage Zone a ...

, which connected Emdibir to

through

Welkite Welkite (also transliterated Wolkite; ) is a town and separate woreda in south-western Ethiopia. The second administrative center of the Central Ethiopia Regional State, and Gurage Zone . The town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevati ...

and

Hosaena Hosaena, Hossana or Hosaina is a town which level as a woreda in southern Ethiopia, and currently serve as the administrative center of Hadiya Zone and Central Ethiopia Regional State as well. Geographically located to the central south of Ethi ...

."Ethiopian Village Studies: Imbdibir"
, Centre for the Study of African Economies (accessed 5 July 2009) The seat of the

Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Emdeber The Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Emdeber () is an eparchy (Eastern Catholic diocese) of the Ethiopian Catholic Church, a metropolitan Eastern Catholic Church. It is a suffragan of the Ethiopian Catholic Archeparchy of Addis Ababa. It is named ...

is located in this town.

History

In the early 1930s there was a Catholic mission of the

Capuchins Capuchin can refer to: *Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an order of Roman Catholic friars *Capuchin Poor Clares, an order of Roman Catholic contemplative religious sisters *Capuchin monkey, primates of the genus ''Cebus'' and ''Sapajus'', named af ...

, usually with a Père and a Frère; they did some medical work and had a school. During the Italian occupation the mission was renamed "Missione della Consolata". The Emdibir market was held every Friday. In 1984 drought affected almost every household in Emdibir: there was no rain, and the

enset ''Ensete ventricosum'', commonly known as enset or ensete, Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana, pseudo-banana, false banana and wild banana, is a species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae. The domesticated form of the plant is ...

in many households was affected by a plant disease known as ''chire''. Although it was insufficient, the community received aid in the form of clothes, maize, milk, butter and oil from the

Catholic Relief Service Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Founded in 1943 by the Bishops of the United States, the agency provides assistance to 130 million people in more than 110 ...

, as well as some of the richer farmers in the area.

Demographics

Based on figures from the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency, also known as the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS; Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ስታቲስቲክስ አገልግሎት), is an Ethiopian government agency designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that ...

in 2005, Emdibir has an estimated total population of 4,057 of whom 1,992 are men and 2,065 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 2,239 of whom 1,103 were men and 1,136 were women.

References

{{reflist Populated places in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region