Agaro (or Haggaro) ( om, Aggaaroo) is a town and separate
woreda in south-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
Jimma Zone 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 ...
, it sits at a latitude and longitude of , and an elevation of 1560 meters above sea level.
Overview
The road that originally connected Agaro to Jimma was "better known for its ''depth'' than for its length" until improvements were completed in 1962. The road to
Bedele
Bedele (also called Buno Bedele) is a town and separate Aanaa in south-western Ethiopia. Located in the Buno Bedele Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a longitude and latitude of and an elevation between above sea level.
History
Ras Te ...
, 96 km long, was completed in 1968 at a cost of 12 million
dollars (Ethiopian), by the French company
Razel Frères. Agaro is one of the most important trading centers of
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 ...
in Ethiopia.
["Local History in Ethiopia"]
(pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 16 November 2007) The Jimma Institute of Public Health (part of
Jimma University) operates a teaching center for health care in Agaro.
Agaro was the capital of the former
Kingdom of Gomma, until Gomma was conquered by
Dejazmach Besha Abuye in 1886. By 1958, the settlement was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as a First Class Township.
Fitawrari
Until the end of the 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, formed the upper ...
Gebre Kristos
Gebre ( gez, ገብረ, ''Gäbrä'') is a common masculine Ethiopian and Eritrean name, meaning "servant" in Ge'ez. It is used as both a stand-alone given name and, frequently, as a prefix (or stem) in religiously themed compound names; e.g. Geb ...
, started coffee plantations in the 1950s on land he inherited from his grandfather Fitawrari Wossen. Fitawrari Besha could employ up to 400 workers during high harvest season. After the
Ethiopian revolution, Gebre Kristos abandoned his plantation and retired to
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 ...
; his plantation was nationalized by the Land Nationalization Proclamation of March 1975.
[
In term of school and education the town have some elementary, senior, secondary and preparatory schools. Agaro secondary and preparatory school is one of the oldest secondary and preparatory school in the town.
]
Demographics
The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 25,458, of whom 12,946 were men and 12,512 were women. The majority of the inhabitants 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 ...
, with 60.7% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 33.76% of the population said they 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 ...
, and 5.04% 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 ...
.''2007 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Oromia Region'', Vol. 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.5, 3.4 (accessed 13 January 2012)
The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 23,246 of whom 11,687 were men and 11,559 were women.
Notes
{{Districts of the Oromia Region
Populated places in the Oromia Region
Ethiopia
Cities and towns in Ethiopia