Debarwa

Debarwa
Debarwa Location in Eritrea
Coordinates: 15°06′N 38°50′E / 15.1°N 38.833°E / 15.1; 38.833
Country	Eritrea
Region	Debub
District	Debarwa
Population
- Total	25,000

Debarwa (Tigrinya: ድባርዋ) is a market town with a population of about 25,000 in central Eritrea, about 25 kilometers south of the capital Asmara.^[1] It is the capital of the Debarwa district (Tsilima) in the Debub ("Southern") administrative region (one of five in Eritrea). A High School and Junior school serve the local villages, while telephone and mail services are provided for the outlying population.

History

Debarwa was formerly the capital of an ancient Kingdom named Medri Bahri which roughly translates as sealand, and was ruled by the Bahr negus (King of the sea). The Portuguese expedition under Cristóvão da Gama spent the rainy season of 1542 in Debarwa as the guests of the Bahr negus.^[2] The Ottomans invaded part of Midre Bahri in 1557, and for several decades struggled for control over the local population and their Ethiopian neighbors. By the time everything settled, the Ottomans were confined to Suakin, Massawa, Hergigo and the immediate hinterlands, but at times their raids would reach into Bogos, Hamasien and Habab districts of Eritrea.^[3]

The town was hard hit by a typhus epidemic in 1893, which followed the misery of the Great Famine (1888-1892). A French visitor described Debarwa as "decimated", and all that was left of the once prosperous town were "a few piles of stones, an almost ruined church, and a few wretched hovels".^[4]

Demographics

The majority of the population in Debarwa belongs to the Bihér-Tigrigna (Tigrinya-speaking ethnic group. In terms of faith, local residents are mainly adherents of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church.

Economy

Local people bring produce such as potatoes, tomatoes, chickens and grain to the market every Saturday. Aside from being a market town, it is also a mining town with resources of high grade gold, copper, silver and zinc, and an important transport route between the south-west corner of Zoba Debub and Asmara. The Japanese company Hitachi once operated a mine near Debarwa, but it was shut down in the 1960s due to the outbreak of the Eritrean War of Independence from Ethiopia.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Older writers, such as Samuel Purchas, often use a corrupt form of its name, "Barua".
2. ^ R.S. Whiteway, editor and translator, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1441-1543, 1902. (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), pp. xlvif, 9
3. ^ Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Trenton: Red Sea Press, 1997), pp. 234-238
4. ^ Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Medical History of Ethiopia (Trenton: Red Sea Press, 1990), p. 36

Coordinates: 15°06′N 38°50′E / 15.1°N 38.833°E / 15.1; 38.833