Dinsho (also called Gurie) is a village in south-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
Bale Zone
(Oromo language, Oromo: Aaana ''Baalee'') is a Zones of Ethiopia, zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia.
Bale is bordered on the south by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from Guji Zone, on the west by the West Arsi Zone, on the north by Ar ...
of the
Oromia Region
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...
in the heart of the
Bale Mountains
The Bale Mountains (also known as the Urgoma Mountains) are mountain ranges in the Oromia Region of southeast Ethiopia, south of the Awash River, part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They include Tullu Demtu, the second-highest mountain in Ethiopia ...
, this village has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 3207 meters. It is the administrative center of
Dinsho 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 ...
.
Overview
Dinsho originally was a small village situated to the west of its current site; Fiona Flintan was shown the solitary, aged
eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
tree that marked the marketplace of the original site. The village was moved in 1934
EC (AD 1941/2) adjacent to the main road running between
Goba
Goba ( Oromo: ', Amharic: ጎባ) is a town and separate woreda located in the Bale Zone of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia approximately 446 km southeast of Addis Ababa, this city has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2,743 meters ...
and
Shashamane
Shashamane ( om, Shashamannee, am, ሻሸመኔ) is a town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the Oromia Region with a 2007 Census population of 100,454, but with an estimated 208,368 inhabitants in mid 2022; the town is known for its Rastafari ...
, and by 2000 the town had expanded considerably with the construction of approximately 60 houses around a new market site on the north side of the town. In her 2000 visit, Flintan found that the commercial and retail activities of Dinso consisted largely of houses, shops, ‘hotels’ and tea houses.
She found the shops were "poorly stocked with few tinned and some dried goods such as spaghetti and
plain biscuits." The principal
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
services was the Wolf’s Den Café which offers trekking facilities including the hiring of guides and horses.
A Town Forum was established in AD 1991 and a Town Office five years later; Ibrahim Jundaa was elected Town Chairman in 1991, who was still Chairman when Flintan visited in 2000. Dinsho has both a primary and a secondary school; the former was rebuilt in the late 1990s and the latter built around 1970. A new health clinic was built around 1996, replacing the old one which had become dilapidated. There are two diesel-powered mills in the town for grinding barley. In 2000, Dinsho had two market days: a small local one on Saturdays and a larger one on Tuesday which draws people from villages around the town, as far as 25 kilometers away; these markets are held in different open places. A mosque had been built in the middle of town shortly before Flintan's village to serve the needs of the
Moslem
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham ...
majority, while an older Christian church was "tucked away behind trees and the river."
The Scandinavian style lodge built in the early 1990s, which replaced the previous guest house, built by a Belgian
sheep herder
A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...
, which had burned down in November, 1982. There is intermittent electricity to the town.
The headquarters of
Bale Mountains National Park
Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) is a national park in Ethiopia. The park encompasses an area of approximately in the Bale Mountains and Sanetti Plateau of the Ethiopian Highlands.
The park's Afromontane habitats have one of the highest incid ...
is situated a few kilometers outside of Dinsho. The town was also the main base for the
Ethiopian wolf
The Ethiopian wolf (''Canis simensis''), also called the Simien jackal and Simien fox, is a canine native to the Ethiopian Highlands. In southeastern Ethiopia it is also known as the horse jackal. It is similar to the coyote in size and build ...
conservation project for many years, and some wolves can be found nearby.
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, Dinsho has an estimated total population of 3,609 of whom 1,772 were males and 1,837 were females.
CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 2,019 of whom 961 were males and 1,058 were females.
Notes
{{reflist
Populated places in the Oromia Region
Bale Mountains