Bati (; ) is a town in north-central

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Located in the

Oromia Zone The Oromia Zone ( om, Godina Oromiyaa; 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 ...

of the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Reg ...

, east of

Dessie Dessiè City which is politically oppressed by the past Ethiopian government systems due to the fact that most of the population follow Islamic religion. Dessie ( am, ደሴ, Däse; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a town in north-central Ethiopia ...

this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1502 metres above sea level. It is the largest town in Bati

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''. These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...

. Bati is known for its

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

, located between the

Ethiopian highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...

and the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it i ...

. According to Philip Briggs, this market "forms an important cultural crossroads for the Amhara, Oromo and semi-nomadic, desert-dwelling

Afar people The Afar ( aa, Qafár), also known as the Danakil, Adali and Odali, are a Cushitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, as well as the entire southern co ...

. Bati has hosted Ethiopia's largest

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

and

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

market, attracting up to 20,000 people every Monday." Based on figures from the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...

in 2005, Bati has an estimated total population of 24,257 of whom 12,229 are men and 11,958 are women. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 13,965 of whom 6,471 were men and 7,494 were women.

History

20th Century

Before the Italian invasion, most of a 100-kilometer road between Bati and

had been completed. Telephone service reached Bati by 1956: the town had two telephones, for the police and for the residence of the Crown Prince."Local History in Ethiopia"
The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 21 November 2007) The town also had postal service well before that time. The earliest mention of Bati is in the 1930s, but Paul B. Henze believed that the market "must antedate the town by at least 200 or 300 years." He adds, "I have been unable to find references of very early travellers to Bati, which may have had a different name in earlier times."Henze, ''Ethiopian Journeys'' (2001), cited in "Local History in Ethiopia" The town was the site of one of the

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

s of the 1984-5 famine, which was closed at the end of 1986.

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Amhara Region Articles containing video clips Cities and towns in Ethiopia