Bilo, Ethiopia

Bilo (also known as Falle) is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the Misraq (East) Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 2505 meters above sea level. Bilo is the administrative center of Wama Bonaya woreda

Overview

Local landmarks in Bilo include the Medhane Alem church.[1]

The Russian explorer Alexander Bulatovich visited Bilo 8 November 1896, which he described as a crossroads for caravans travelling between southwestern Ethiopia and Gojjam. Bulatovich further notes that while Bilo was in the territory of Dejazmach Demissew Nassibu it was not part of it; instead it was under the rule of a nagadras or governor of its marketplace.[2] Dunlop mentions Bilo in his memoirs of travelling through western Ethiopia with Captain R.H.R. Taylor in 1935, as where they watched women spin thread and a man weave cloth to be sold at Addis Ababa. Dunlop describes Bilo as a "village of some size" east of the Dodu pass between Mount Konchi and Mount Sodu[3]

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Bilo has an estimated total population of 2,401 of whom 1,108 are men and 1,293 are women.[4] The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 1,346 of whom 601 were men and 745 women.

Notes

  1. ^ "Local History in Ethiopia" The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 15 January 2010)
  2. ^ From Entotto to the River Baro (1897), translated by Richard Selzer, Ethiopia through Russian Eyes: Country in Transition, 1896-1898 (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 2000) ISBN 1569021171 (accessed 2 November 2009)
  3. ^ A. Dunlop, "The Dadessa Valley", Geographical Journal, 89 (1937), pp. 511f
  4. ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.4