Chagni (also known as Kedamawi Haile Selassie Ber) is a town in North Western

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

Agew Awi Zone Agew Awi ( am, አገው አዊ) is a zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It is named for the Awi sub-group of the Agaw people, some of whom live in this Zone. Agew Awi Zone is bordered on the west by Benishangul-Gumuz Region, on the north by ...

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 ...

, this town has a longitude and latitude of and an elevation of 1583 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of

Guangua Guangua (Amharic: ጓንጓ) is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Agew Awi Zone, Guangua is bordered on the south and west by the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, on the north by Dangila, on the northwest by Faggeta Lekoma ...

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 ...

; in the past Chagni was the administrative center of the Metekel ''awraja''.

History

The British explorer

Charles Beke Charles Tilstone Beke (10 October 1800 – 31 July 1874) was an English traveller, geographer and Biblical critic. Biography Born in Stepney, London, the son of a merchant in the City of London, for a few years Beke engaged in mercantile pursuit ...

visited Chagni on its market day, 17 March 1842, and found the town inhabited mostly by " Shánkalas (the Nubas of the maps), who are negroes", who fled at his appearance out of fear: "fine tall muscular men, armed with spear and knife, hurrying away and hiding themselves among the bushes as I approached". In the 1950s, Chagni was administered by ''Fitawrari'' Embiale Gessess, whom witnesses state incorporated the current city of Chagni, and he is the father of Gebeyaw Embiale. Chagni was on the frontier between two ethnic groups who were frequently in conflict: the Gumuz and the Amhara. The Gumuz reportedly rebelled against Ethiopian rule four separate times between 1950 and 1990. However once the border between the two regions was drawn in 1992, dividing the former Metekel ''awraja'' between them, tensions lessened and local elders were able to negotiate peaceful reconciliations between the two groups. Around 1957, the primary school in Chagni was at the westernmost end of the telephone lines in

Gojjam Gojjam ( ''gōjjām'', originally ጐዛም ''gʷazzam'', later ጐዣም ''gʷažžām'', ጎዣም ''gōžžām'') is a historical province in northwestern Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos. Gojjam's earliest western boundary ex ...

. Famous people born in Chagni include the Ethiopian singer Gigi, as well as Gebeyaw Embiale, the Ethiopian mechanical engineer known in Ethiopia for designing components used in the

Airbus 380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

aircraft.

Demographics

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, Chagni has an estimated total population of 30,938, of whom 16,035 are men and 14,903 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 17,777 of whom 8,437 were men and 9,340 were women.

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Amhara Region