Gambela ( am, ጋምቤላ), also spelled Gambella, is a city and separate
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
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 ...
and the capital of the
Gambela Region
The Gambela Region (also spelled Gambella; am, ጋምቤላ), officially the Gambela Peoples' Region, is a regional state in western Ethiopia, bordering South Sudan. Previously known as Region 12, its capital is Gambela. The Region is situated ...
. It was known as Paanywaa( Anyuak Country) Located in
Anyuak Zone, at the confluence of the
Openo River and its tributary the Jajjabe, the city has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 526 meters. It is surrounded by
Gambela Zuria
Gambela Zuria was a woreda in the Gambela Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Anuak Zone, Gambela Zuria is bordered on the south by Abobo, on the west by Itang special woreda, and on the north and east by the Oromia Region. Gambela, which is the cap ...
.
Gambela is important because bridges over both the Baro and the Jajjaba are located in that city. The
Anyuak
The Anyuak, also known as Anyua and Anywaa, are a Luo peoples, Luo Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting parts of East Africa. The Anuak belong to the larger Luo family group. Their language is referred to as Dha-Anywaa. They are primarily found in Gambe ...
are the inhabitants of Gambela and they have their own language. The town also boasts an
airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...
(
ICAO code HAGM,
IATA GMB) and is near the
Gambela National Park
Gambella National Park, also spelled Gambela National Park, is a large national park in Ethiopia. It is the nation's largest national park and is located several hundred kilometers from Addis Ababa. It was established in 1974, but is not fully pr ...
.
History
Gambela was founded because of its location on the Baro, a tributary of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
, which was seen by both the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and Ethiopia as an excellent highway for exporting
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
Seeds of ...
and other goods from the fertile
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 . ...
to
Sudan and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
.
British concession (1902–1956)
Emperor
Menelik II
, spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"''
, alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.)
Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew ( Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 ...
granted Britain use of a port along the Baro on 15 May 1902, and in 1907 the port and a
customs station were founded at Gambela.
A shipping service run by
Sudan Railways
Sudan has 4,725 kilometers of narrow-gauge, single-track railways. The main line runs from Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border to Khartoum and southwest to El-Obeid via Sannar and Kosti, Sudan, with extensions to Nyala in Southern Darfur and Wau ...
linked
Khartoum
Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...
with Gambela, a distance of 1,366 kilometers. According to
Richard Pankhurst
Richard Marsden Pankhurst (1834 – 5 July 1898) was an English barrister and socialist who was a strong supporter of women's rights.
Early life
Richard Pankhurst was the son of Henry Francis Pankhurst (1806–1873) and Margaret Marsden (1 ...
, by the mid-1930s boats sailed twice a month during the
rainy season
The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs.
Rainy Season may also refer to:
* ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King
* "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni
* '' ...
, taking seven days downstream and eleven upstream.
According to Bahru Zewde, British interest in the concession was due, in part, to the attraction of "tapping the allegedly fabulous commercial potential of Western Ethiopia and drawing the whole region into the economic orbit of the Sudan", but also intended "to be a brilliant British countermove to avert the virtual commercial hegemony in Ethiopia that the
Jibouti-Addis Ababa Railway seemed to promise the French." In fact it benefitted the
Abyssinians themselves not to have their economy at the control of a single European power, whether French or British or even Italian, and Menelik was playing a wise game of playing his colonial neighbours against each other, to avoid any single one gaining a monopoly, whilst opening his country to the benefits of trade and technology, as part of a major programme of modernisation. Although over 70% of Ethiopia's external trade passed through the port at
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
between 1911 and 1917, the share of goods passing through Gambela had the fastest rate of growth until the
Italian conquest.
The British did have to cope with the Ethiopian governors of
Sayo and
Gore
Gore may refer to:
Places Australia
* Gore, Queensland
* Gore Creek (New South Wales)
* Gore Island (Queensland)
Canada
* Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community
* Gore, Quebec, a township municipality
* Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manitouli ...
, who showed a keen interest in the money to be made in the cross-border trade. A small detachment of troops from the nominal
condominium of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ar, السودان الإنجليزي المصري ') was a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt in the Sudans region of northern Africa between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day ...
was posted to Gambela to maintain order and security within the concession and defend it from outside interests in what was still a largely lawless country, following numerous Egyptian, Islamist, British and Italian interventions, and a consequent breakdown of civil authority, over the previous decades.
The Regent ''Ras'' Tafari (the later Emperor
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...
), beginning on 9 July 1927, granted a number of concessions to T. Zervos and A. Danalis to construct a road 180 kilometers in length to connect Gambela with the towns of
Metu
Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering a ...
and Gore.
The British Concession was not directly affected by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 but when
Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa ( it, Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire, conquered in the S ...
was formally established in 1936, the Ethiopian concession was deemed to have lapsed. The shipping service suspended and the steamer, together with the British resident, left Gambela on 14 October. With the river traffic now gone, the Italians provided an alternative link for the town, by building a further road from Gambela, this one to
Nekemte
Nekemte, also spelled as Neqemte (, Amharic: ነቀምት), is a market town and separate woreda in western Ethiopia. Located in the East Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, Nekemte has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2,088 met ...
, between 1936 and 1940. Gambela was taken from the Italians by the 2/6
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within ...
on 3 February 1941.
["Local History in Ethiopia"]
The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 29 January 2008) The property of the British buildings were reported to have been respected and left intact during the peacetime and wartime Italian administration. The original Resident returned, but the Concession was no longer distinctive, as the whole country remained under British administration, the
Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
The Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA) was a joint British, French and Arab military administration over Levantine provinces of the former Ottoman Empire between 1917 and 1920, set up on 23 October 1917 following the Sinai and Pale ...
(OETA), for a number of years, until sufficient Ethiopian administrators had been trained.
Lij Tewodros, a son of
Lij Iyasu
''Lij'' Iyasu ( gez, ልጅ ኢያሱ; 4 February 1895 – 25 November 1935) was the designated Emperor of Ethiopia from 1913 to 1916. His baptismal name was Kifle Yaqob (ክፍለ ያዕቆብ ''kəflä y’aqob''). Ethiopian emperors traditio ...
, surfaced in the Gambela area in May 1941 proclaiming himself Emperor. His insurrection was put down by
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
troops before they left the area in February 1942.
[
A new Anglo-Ethiopian treaty was signed on 19 December 1944 which virtually eliminated British privileges, but the Gambela enclave continued. The Ethiopian government gradually increased its control over the enclave: outlawing the Maria Theresa Thaler as legal tender, requiring all merchants to obtain passports in person in ]Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
, and in 1951 informing the British resident, Captain Dribble, that he could no longer judge or imprison anyone. When he departed on 30 October 1954, the end of the enclave was in sight. The enclave was still held by the Sudanese when they achieved independence, but they did not agree to hand the enclave back to Ethiopia until 15 October 1956.[
]
Recent history
The port was closed during the Derg era, and it remains closed due to tension between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and the Ethiopian government, though there are hopes to reopen the port.
The announced on 27 May 1991 that they had gained control of Gambela.[
On 13 December 2003, in an apparent reprisal for a series of ambushes of highlander civilians, 30 Ethiopian soldiers and highlander civilians launched a brutal attack on Gambela's Anuak population. ]Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
has estimated that 424 people were killed. An armed Anuak group (which John Young speculates is the Gambela People's Liberation Movement
The Gambela People's Liberation Movement (abbreviated GPLM) was a rebel group in the Gambela Region in Ethiopia. The GPLM was founded by Anuak dissidents during the Derg and Woyane regime. The organization remained dominated by Anuaks.Human Rig ...
) attacked a prison in the capital 30 October 2005, freeing inmates, and killing the police commissioner.
In March 2012, a bus was attacked, with 19 people on board being shot dead.
Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by 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 growt ...
of Ethiopia, Gambela has a total population of 39,022, an increase of 113.67% over the 1994 census, of whom 20,790 are men and 18,232 women. A total of 10,152 households were counted in this town, which results in an average of 3.8 persons to a household, and 9,595 housing units. The majority of the inhabitants said they were Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
, with 57.04% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 30.39% of the population practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chri ...
, 9% were Muslim, and 4.08% were Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
According to the 1994 national census, its total population was 18,263 of whom 9852 were males and 8411 were females. The ethnic breakdown was 33.8% Nuer Nuer may refer to:
* Nuer people
* Nuer language
The Nuer language (Thok Naath) ("people's language") is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gamb ...
, 26.1% Anuak, 14% Oromo, 7.4% Amhara, 6.5% Tigray, 4.3% Kambaata, and 4.9% all others.''The 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Gambela Region'', vol.1
, Table 2.17
Notes
{{Authority control
Populated places in the Gambela Region