Metehara ( am, መተሐራ, om, Mataharaa) is a town in 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

East Shewa Zone East Shewa ( om, Shawaa Bahaa) is a zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia. East Shewa is located at centre of oromia Oromia, connecting the western regions to the eastern ones. This zone is bordered on the south by the West Arsi Zone, on the southw ...

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 ...

, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 947 meters above sea level. Access to Metehara includes a station on the

Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway The Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway (; , , ) is a new standard gauge international railway that serves as the backbone of the new Ethiopian National Railway Network. The railway was inaugurated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on January ...

. There is a Tuesday livestock market. Notable local landmarks include Metehara Mikael Bet church,

Mount Fentale Fentale is a stratovolcano located in Awash National Park which was found in the Oromia Region, Ethiopia. It is the highest point of Fentale woreda. Philip Briggs describes Mount Fentale as being crowned by a 350 meter deep crater. Brigg ...

to the north,

Awash National Park Awash National Park is a national park in Ethiopia. Located at the border of Oromia state and Afar state, the park covers an area of 827 square kilometers, most of it lies at an altitude of 900 meters. Spanning across the southern tip of the ...

to the northeast, and

Lake Basaka Lake Basaka ( om, Hora Basakaa; Amharic: በሰቃ ሐይቅ) is a shallow, saline lake in the Oromia Region of central Ethiopia. It is located in the Great Rift Valley about south east of the capital Addis Ababa. The lake is at an elevation o ...

to the south of the town. The town is inhabited by the

Karrayyu Oromo The Karrayyu (also Kerrayu, Karrayyuu) are an Oromo clan inhabiting the Awash Valley banks of Abadir and Merti area in central Ethiopia. They are pastoralists. Karrayyu neighbor the Afar and Argobba people. It is believed the extinct Harla ethn ...

Afar Afar may refer to: Peoples and languages *Afar language, an East Cushitic language *Afar people, an ethnic group of Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia Places Horn of Africa *Afar Desert or Danakil Desert, a desert in Ethiopia *Afar Region, a region ...

, Somali Dir clans ( Issa and

Gadabuursi The Gadabuursi ( Somali: ''Gadabuursi'', Arabic: جادابورسي), also known as ''Samaroon'' (Arabic: ''قبيلة سَمَرُون)'', is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir clan family. The Gadabuursi are geographically s ...

) and Amhara.

History

Visitors to the area in the first decades of the 20th century frequently described the area as land between the

, Somali Dir clans ( Issa and

) and Amhara."Local History in Ethiopia"
(pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 3 January 2008) Somali settlers from the Issa and

migrated to this region towards the end of the era of

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

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 A ...

. Later their numbers increased as relatives and kinsmen took permanent settlement there. On the eve of the Italian invasion, a German named Neitzel had been granted a concession to cultivate cotton and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

. Despite that, few people lived in the area until the arrival of the Dutch corporation Handelsvereeningung Amsterdam (HVA), which established a factory to process

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

at Metehara, after it had been expelled from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

in 1954. In 1970, the Karrayyu Oromo staged an armed demonstration in Metehara which destroyed fences and buildings at the HVA plantation. The

Derg The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " c ...

announced 3 February 1975 that the sugar plantation, including the Dutch investments, would be fully nationalized. During the 2002 drought, a Karrayyu Oromo leader was killed in Metehara, which increased tensions between the Karrayyu Oromo and

Afar people The Afar ( aa, Qafár), also known as the Danakil, Adali and Odali, are a Cushitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, as well as the entire southern co ...

s. As a result the Afar, who traded at the Tuesday market, did not go to the market during that drought.

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, Metehara has an estimated total population of 21,348 of whom 10,763 were men and 10,585 were women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 11,934 of whom 5,837 were males and 6,097 were females. It is the largest town in

Fentale Fentale is one of the districts in the Oromia of Ethiopia. Part of the East Shewa Zone located in the Great Rift Valley, Fentale is bordered on the southeast by the Arsi Zone, on the southwest by Boset, on the northwest by the Amhara Region, and on ...

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 ...

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Oromia Region Populated lakeshore places in Ethiopia