Menge 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
Asosa Zone
Assosa is a zone in Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia. This Zone was named after the Assosa Sultanate, which had approximately the same boundaries. Assosa is bordered on the south by the Mao-Komo special woreda, on the west by Sudan, and on t ...
of the
Benishangul-Gumuz Region
Benishangul-Gumuz ( am, ቤንሻንጉል ጉሙዝ, Benšangul Gumuz) is a regional state in northwestern Ethiopia to the border of Sudan. It was previously known as Region 6. The region's capital is Assosa. Following the adoption of the 1 ...
, Menge has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1123 meters above sea level.
Records at the Nordic Africa Institute website provide details of a primary school in Menge in 1968. In 1970, a group of three German travelers travelling down the
Abay River
Abay may refer to:
People
*Abay (name)
Places
* Abay District, East Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan
* Abay District, Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan
**Abay (town), the province's administrative center
* Abay, Almaty, Kazakhstan
* Abay, Aktobe, a village ...
describe Menge as a settlement with masonry houses, and record that it had a police station.
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 ...
(CSA), in 2005 this town has an estimated total population of 318, of whom 176 were males and 142 were females. It is the largest settlement in
Menge 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 ...
.
The 1994 national census reported its total population was 185, of whom 102 were males and 83 were females. The three largest ethnic groups reported in Menge were: the
Berta 118,
Oromo 27, and Amhara 27.
Berta is spoken as a first language by 117 inhabitants,
Oromiffa
Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language
The Afroasiatic languag ...
by 39, and
Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...
by 28. 139 of the inhabitants said they were
Muslim
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 Abrah ...
, 39 practiced
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 Chris ...
, and seven were
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
. The CSA categorized 103 of the inhabitants as being part of the labor pool (four of whom were unemployed), and 45 as not part of it.
Details about the housing in Menge provide a sense of the quality of the life of its inhabitants. All of the 52 housing units in the town were permanent, with an average of 3.5 persons per house; 45 sheltered one household, while 7 sheltered two, while 47 housing structures had one room and 5 had two. Concerning
water supply and sanitation
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
, residents of only 48 units obtained water from a protected well, and 48 had no toilet while the remaining 4 shared the use of a pit toilet with others. None of these houses were provided for bathing. Lighting for 48 units was furnished by
kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
lanterns; four had no lighting. The average rent for housing in Menge was reported to be 22.77
Birr a month, less than both the average reported for the Region of 26.64 Birr and the average reported for the Zone of 36.19 Birr.
[''1994 Population and Housing Census'', vol. 1, Tables 6.2, 6.7, 6.9, 6.10, 6.12, 6.14, 6.15, 6.16, 6.24]
Notes
{{reflist
Populated places in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region