Wukro

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Wukro
Wukro (Ethiopië )
Wukro
Wukro
Location within Ethiopia
Coordinates: 13°48′N 39°36′E / 13.8, 39.6
Country Ethiopia
Region Tigray
Zone Misraqawi (Eastern)
Elevation 1,972 m (6,470 ft)
Population (2005)
 - Total 28,583
Time zone EAT (UTC+3)

Wukro (also transliterated Ugoro[1]) is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi (Eastern) Zone of the Tigray Region on on the Asmara-Addis Ababa highway, it has a longitude and latitude of 13°48′N, 39°36′E with an elevation of 1972 meters above sea level.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this town has an estimated total population of 28,583, of whom 13,947 were males and 14,636 were females.[2] The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 16,421 of whom 7,427 were males and 8,994 were females. It is the largest settlement in Wukro woreda.

[edit] History

Francisco Álvares was the first European recorded to have visited Wukro, when in 1521 he stayed at the royal inn or Betenegush.[3] The next important European visit was in 1868 when Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Napier passed through the village on his way to Magdela where he defeated the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II.[4] During their march through Wukro, members of the British army became the first Europeans to see one of the Tigrayan rock-hewn churches, most likely Wukro Chirkos;[5] another notable landmark is the church Wukro Giyorgis Bete.

During the Italian occupation, one Francesco Baldassare started a mill in Wukro, but abandoned it when the Italians were defeated in 1941.[6] Wukro was used as his headquarters by Blatta Haile Mariam Redda during the Woyane rebellion, until Ras Abebe Aregai captured the town 17 October 1943.[7] Dawit W. Girgis reports in his memoirs reports that in 1964, with the permission of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Israelis operated a secret base outside Wukro where members of the Anyanya (a Sudanese rebel group) were trained in guerrila warfare.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Like many proper names in Ethiopia, there are a number of transliterations of this name into English. David Buxton lists the many ways Wukro "has been variously spelt: Agroo, Corou, Oucro, Ouquo, Ucro, Ouaqero, Oukero, Ouogro, Uogro, Woghuro, Wogro, Waqro, and Weqro. Some of these forms...are influenced by French or Italian spelling conventions" The Abyssinians (New York: Praeger, 1970), p. 16
  2. ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.3
  3. ^ Francisco Alvarez, The Prester John of the Indies, translated by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), pp. 176ff
  4. ^ Philip Briggs, Ethiopia: The Bradt Travel Guide, 3rd edition (Chalfont St Peters: Bradt, 2002), p. 239
  5. ^ David Buxton identifies the church the British described in their memoirs with this church. Travels in Ethiopia, second edition (London: Benn, 1957), p.126.
  6. ^ a b "Local History in Ethiopia" (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 6 December 2007)
  7. ^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 250f