Butajira

Butajira is a town in south-central Ethiopia. Located at the base of the Zebidar massif in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2131 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of the Meskanena Mareko woreda.

Overview

According to the Gurage Zone government, Butajira is one of 12 towns with electrical power, one of 11 with telephone service and one of nine that have postal service. drinkable water is provided by 4 boreholes.^[1] The town has a weekly market on Fridays. Notable landmarks in the town include a fountain on the south side of the town, which is fed from a sacred spring dedicated to saint Tekle Haymanot.^[2] The zone authorities mention another local landmark is the local mosque, which was completed in AD 1979 (1972 EC), and has two large praying halls, each with room for 2500 individuals: the hall on the ground floor is for women while the hall on the second floor is for men.^[3]

Butajira was founded between 1926 when a missionary Pere Azaiz found nothing there, and 1935 when a German ethnographic expedition found a town laid out in straight lines and square shapes to serve as the administrative center of the Gurage people. After Ras Desta Damtew was taken prisoner on 24 February 1937 in the small village of Eya he was brought to Butajira where, after a perfunctory trial, he was executed that evening. British patrols, acting as part of the East African Campaign, found that arbegnoch groups had dispersed the local Italian positions, leading to both the British and Ethiopian flags being raised over the town on 21 April 1941.^[2]

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Butajira has an estimated total population of 37,163 of whom 17,749 are men and 19,414 are women.^[4] The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 20,509 of whom 9,827 were men and 10,682 were women.

References