Worabe

Worabe (from the Gurage word for "Hyena" [ [http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/vw/ORTWI.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia, Wib Hamer - Wyrambo"] (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 18 December 2007)] ), also known as Silte (after the native Silt'e people), is a town in south-central Ethiopia. Official sources locate this town in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, although it is reported that at a referendum in 2000 the Silt'e unanimously voted to form their own Zone, Silt'e, which includes Worabe. The town has a latitude and longitude of coord|8|1|N|38|20|E with an elevation of 2113 meters above sea level.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Worabe has an estimated total population of 1,250 of whom 668 were males and 582 were females. [ [http://www.csa.gov.et/text_files/2005_national_statistics.htm CSA 2005 National Statistics] , Table B.4] The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 690 of whom 370 were males and 320 were females. It is one of three towns in Silte woreda.

History

The first recorded mention of Worabe dates to 1583/1584, during the reign of Emperor Sarsa Dengel, when members of the Oromo people arrived in the area and began to besiege Worabe and Fanfara. [ [http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/vw/ORTWEN.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia, Wenaga - White"] (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 18 December 2007)]

A German ethnographic expedition visited this town in April 1935. They found a big town on a flat hill, with a small lake to the east and fields which were likely to get waterlogged in the rainy season, as well as ancient decorated monoliths in the neighbourhood, which were first described by Père Azaïs, who had travelled in the area in the 1920s, but the later German expedition failed to find two of the most important monuments. Local people thought they had been moved to Addis Ababa, but they could not be traced there. [ [http://130.238.24.99/library/resources/dossiers/local_history_of_ethiopia/s/ORTSHO.pdf "Local History in Ethiopia, Shoan Terara - Snoch"] (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 18 December 2007)]

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