Antsokiyana Gemza ( Amharic: አንጾኪያና ገምዛ "Antsokiya and Gemza") is a

wereda 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 the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the R ...

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 Er ...

. This district is partly named for one of the districts of

Shewa Shewa ( am, ሸዋ; , om, Shawaa), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (''Scioà'' in Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Add ...

, Antsokia. Part of the

North Shewa Zone North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, Antsokiyana Gemza is bordered on the south by

Efratana Gidim Efratana Gidim ( Amharic: ኤፍራታና ግድም "Efrata and Gedem") is a woreda in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. It is named after two historic districts that were part of the former autonomous kingdom of Shewa, Efrata and Gedem. Part of the Se ...

, on the southwest by

Menz Gera Midir Menz Gera Midir is one of the woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It is partly named after the northern district of the former province of Menz, Gera Meder. Located at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands in the Semien Shewa Zone, Men ...

, on the west by Gishe, and on the north and east by the

Oromia Zone The Oromia Zone ( om, Godina Oromiyaa; Amharic: ኦሮሚያ ዞን) is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Oromia is named for the Oromo people, who settled along the edge of the Ethiopian Highlands that form this Zone. Oromia Zone is borde ...

. The administrative center is Mekoy; other towns in Antsokiyana Gemza include Majete. Local landmarks in this district include the Tomb of Saint

Gelawdewos Galawdewos ( gez, ገላውዴዎስ, 1521/1522 – 23 March 1559) also known as Mar Gelawdewos ( amh, ማር ገላውዴዎስ), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 3 September 1540 until his death in 1559, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His t ...

, where the head of the holy

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

of that name was buried in 1562.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national 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 ...

(CSA), this district has a total population of 79,091, an increase of 7.75% over the 1994 census, of whom 39,327 are men and 39,764 women; 12,547 or 15.86% are urban inhabitants. With an area of 372.18 square kilometers, Antsokiyana Gemza has a population density of 212.51, which is greater than the Zone average of 115.3 persons per square kilometer. A total of 18,710 households were counted in this district, resulting in an average of 4.23 persons to a household, and 18,130 housing units. The majority of the inhabitants were

Orthodox Tewahedo {{Short description, Collective term for Oriental Orthodox Churches in Eritrea and Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahedo refers to two Oriental Orthodox Christian denominations with shared beliefs, liturgy, and history. The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is ...

, with 74.35% reporting that as their religion, while 23.83% of the population said they were Muslim and 1.81% were

P'ent'ay P'ent'ay (from Ge'ez: ) is an originally Amharic– Tigrinya language term for Pentecostal and other Eastern-oriented Protestant Christians within Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora. Today, the term refers to all ...

. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this district of 73,401 in 13,106 households, of whom 36,512 were men and 36,889 were women; 9,964 or 13.57% of its population were urban dwellers. The two largest ethnic groups reported in Antsokiyana Gemza were

Amharas Amharas ( am, አማራ, Āmara; gez, ዐምሐራ, ʾÄməḥära) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which is indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Highlands of Ethiopia, particularly inhabiting the Amhara ...

(97.63%), and

Oromos The Oromo (pron. Oromo: ''Oromoo'') are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the Oromia region of Ethiopia and parts of Northern Kenya, who speak the Oromo language (also called ''Afaan Oromoo'' or ''Oromiffa''), which is part of the Cushitic b ...

(2.25%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.12% of the population. Amharic was spoken as a first language by 97.59%, and 2.31% spoke the

Oromo language 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 that belongs to the Cushi ...

; the remaining 0.1% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Orthodox Tewahedo, with 75.98% reporting that as their religion, while 23.15% were Muslim, and 0.82%

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 ...

.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Amhara Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.7, 2.10, 2.13, 2.17, Annex II.2 (accessed 9 April 2009)

References

Works cited

* {{Districts of the Amhara Region Districts of Amhara Region