Gidami is a town in 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

Kelem Welega Zone Kellem Wollega ( Oromo: ''Qeellam Wallaggaa'') is one of the zones of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia. This zone is named after the former province of Wollega, whose western part lay in the area Kellem Wollega now occupies. Kellem Wollega was formed ...

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 ...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1776 and 1928 meters above sea level. It is the main town of Gidami

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 ...

History

Charles W. Gwynn wrote that he was detained at Gidami for a month in 1900, then the seat of ''

Dejazmach Until the end of the Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( gez, መሳፍንት , modern , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary nobility, ...

'' Jote Talu, while making an official reconnaissance of the

Ethiopia–Sudan border The Ethiopia–Sudan border ( ar, الحدود الإثيوبية السودانية; ''ye’ītiyo sudani diniberi'') is a disputed border between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of the Sudan since the 19th centur ...

; ''Dejazmach'' Jote was absent from Gidami during his stay, but Gwynn later learned that Gidami "was distinguished for having stopped three European Expeditions in the course of a few years -- Bottego's, Mangin's, and my own." By the early 1930s, Gidami was an important coffee market with two or three resident foreign traders. In 1938, the ''Guido'' described the town as a large village with many Amhara in an area populated by the Oromo, having a post office, telegraph and infirmary. On 18 October 2006, Gidami and Begi (town) were the setting for clashes between Muslims and Protestant Christians, resulting in 9 deaths, including the death of two Protestant preachers, and over 100 injured. In addition, 21 churches, one mosque, and dozens of houses were burned, leaving over 400 people homeless.

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, Gidami has an estimated total population of 5,007 of whom 2,545 are men and 2,462 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 2,798 of whom 1,380 were men and 1,418 were women.

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Oromia Region