Wollo Province

Wollo was a historical region and province in the northeastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessie.[1] The province was named after the Wollo Oromo, who settled in this part of Ethiopia in the 17th century. An older name for Wollo is Lakomelza.

Following the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation in 1941, the provinces of Amhara Sayint, Azabo, Lasta, Raya Province, Wag, and Yejju were added to Wollo.[2] A number of peasant rebellions rocked Wollo, which included the Woyane Rebellion in 1943, and revolts of the Yejju Oromo in 1948 and 1970.[3] With the adoption of the new constitution in 1995, Wollo was divided between the Afar Region which absorbed the part of the province that extended into the Afar Depression, the Tigray Region, which annexed the northwestern corner, and the Amhara Region which absorbed the remainder of the province in the Ethiopian highlands.

References

  1. ^ Satellite image of the Wollo region in the Ethiopian Highlands at Google Maps
  2. ^ This list of provinces is based on the map in Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia (London: James Currey, 1991), p. 86.
  3. ^ Sarah Vaughan, "Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia" (University of Edinburgh: Ph.D. Thesis, 2003), p. 126
Regions
Chartered cities
Provinces
(prior to 1995)