Kalu (

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

: ቃሉ) also known as Harbu is one of the

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 ...

s in the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

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 ...

. Part of the

Debub Wollo Zone South Wollo (Amharic: ደቡብ ወሎ) is a zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It acquired its name from the former province of Wollo. South Wollo is bordered on the south by North Shewa and the Oromia Special Zone (Amhara), on the west b ...

, Kalu is bordered on the west by

Dessie Zuria Dessie Zuria (Amharic ደሴ ዙሪያ "Greater Dessie Area") is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands in the Debub Wollo Zone, Dessie Zuria is bordered on the south by Abuko and ...

, on the north by Were Babu, on the south and east by the

Oromia Zone The Oromia Zone (; Amharic: ኦሮሚያ ዞን) is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Oromia is named for the Oromo people, who settled along the edge of the Ethiopian Highlands that form this Zone. Oromia Zone is bordered on the southwest by ...

, on the southeast by Argobba special woreda, and on the southwest by

Abuko Abuko is a town in the West Coast Division of the Gambia, five miles southwest of the capital Banjul. It is located in the district of Kombo North/Saint Mary to the north of Banjul International Airport and Abuko Nature Reserve. Location Abuko ...

. The administrative center for this woreda is Harbu; other towns in Kalu include Ancharo, Gerba, and Degan. A highway linking Kombolcha and Afar bisects Kalu to two parts.

Overview

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 800 metres above sea level in the lowlands bordering the Oromia Zone to 1,750 metres at the foot of the mountains north of

Kombolcha Kombolcha () is a town and district in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1842 and 1915 meters above sea level. Some guide books describe K ...

; the climate of Kalu varies from dry sub-humid to semi-arid. Important rivers include the Cheleleka and Borkana. Forested area includes Yegof forest, 180 square kilometres of native trees and plantations of exotic species covering the steep slopes of Mount Yegof northeast of Kombolcha, which regenerated after the 1973-1974 famine. In 2002, a number of

kebele A ward (; ; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. Somali word that has meaning of collected people where water is fairly sufficient and available to prolongue thei ...

s were taken from Kalu and Dessie Zuria to create the new woreda of

. Argobba special woreda was separated from Kalu. Pottery shards were recovered from tombs near Atatiya in Harbu, pointing to the presence of the

Kingdom of Axum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

as far south as the area this woreda now covers.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by 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 ...

of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 186,181, an increase of 9.18% over the 1994 census, of whom 94,187 are men and 91,994 women; 19,810 or 10.64% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 851.54 square kilometers, Kalu has a population density of 218.64, which is greater than the Zone average of 147.58 persons per square kilometre. A total of 41,648 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 4.47 persons to a household, and 40,115 housing units. The majority of the inhabitants were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, with 98.73% reporting that as their religion, while 1.17% of the population said they practised

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 170,523 in 34,681 households, of whom 85,326 were men and 85,197 were women; 9,897 or 5.8% of its population were urban dwellers. The largest ethnic group reported in Kalu was the Amhara (99.24%).

was spoken as a first language by 99.27%. The majority of the inhabitants were

, with 96.76% of the population having reported they practiced that belief, while 3.14% of the population said they professed

.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Amhara Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
Tables 2.1, 2.7, 2.10, 2.13, 2.17, Annex II.2 (accessed 9 April 2009)

Overview

Demographics

Notes

Further reading