Girawa (woreda)

Girawa (also called Girawa Meyu Mulike) is one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq (East) Hararghe Zone, Girawa is bordered on the south by Gola Odana Meyumuluke, on the west by Bedeno, on the north by Kurfa Chele, and on the east by Fedis. The administrative center of the woreda is Girawa; other towns include Megala.

Overview

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 500 to 3230 meters above sea level; Geyle is the highest point; other significant peaks include Mount Gara Muleta. A survey of the land in Girawa (released in 1996) shows that 54.3% is arable or cultivable, 4.4% pasture, 1.2% forest, 21.8% built-up, and the remaining 18.3% is considered degraded or otherwise unusable. Khat, fruits and vegetables are important cash crops.^[1] Coffee is also an important cash crop; over 5,000 hectares are planted with it.^[2]

Industry in the woreda includes 14 grain mills employing 45 people, as well as 95 registered businesses including wholesalers, retailers and service providers. Deposits of feldspar, mica and amazonite are known, but they have not been developed. There were 46 Farmers Associations with 43,373 members and 4 Farmers Service Cooperatives with 4965 members. Girawa has 75 kilometers of dry-weather and 12 of all-weather road, for an average road density of 60.3 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 21.8% of the urban and 3.2% of the rural population have access to drinking water.^[1]

Girawa gained publicity in early April 1999, when the media learned of a bloody war between lions and spotted hyenas in the lowlands in the Gobele wilderness, southeast of the administrative center for the woreda. What initially was thought to be a delayed April’s Fool Joke drew attention from the international press, while Ethiopian Television thrilled its viewers with footage showing the carnivores fighting. In its April 20 issue, the Ethiopian Herald said that after the situation "returned to normal", the death toll stood at 6 lions and 35 hyenas – the felines apparently having gained the victory. A local inhabitant was quoted as saying the lion-versus-hyena war was an "old blood feud" going back 45 years, when a lion escaped from emperor Haile Selassie’s palace menagerie in Harar and wreaked havoc on a hyena family; since then the hyenas have sought to extract vengeance on the lions.^[3]

Demographics

The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 240,173, of whom 121,751 were men and 118,422 were women; 5,893 or 2.45% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they were Muslim, with 98.38% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 1.44% of the population practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.^[4]

Based on figures published by the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 247,992, of whom 121,416 were men and 126,576 were women; 7,767 or 3.13% of its population are urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 6.9%. With an estimated area of 1,442.19 square kilometers, Girawa has an estimated population density of 172 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 102.6.^[5]

The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 179,213, of whom 91,958 were men and 87,255 women; 4,340 or 2.42% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. (This total also includes an estimate for the inhabitants of one rural kebele, which were not counted; they were estimated to have 26,745 inhabitants, of whom 13,467 were men and 13,278 women.) The two largest ethnic groups reported in Girawa were the Oromo (97.56%), and the Amhara (2.31%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.13% of the population. Oromiffa was spoken as a first language by 97.46%, and 2.48% spoke Amharic; the remaining 0.06% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Muslim, with 97.34% of the population having reported they practiced that belief, while 2.56% of the population said they professed Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.^[6]

Notes

1. Socio-economic profile of the East Hararghe Zone Government of Oromia Region (last accessed 1 August 2006).
2. "Coffee Production" Oromia Coffee Cooperative Union website
3. Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (UNDP-EUE). "Horn of Africa, Monthly Review, March - April 1999" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17.
4. 2007 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Oromia Region, Vol. 1, Tables 2.1, 2.5, 3.4 (accessed 13 January 2012)
5. CSA 2005 National Statistics, Tables B.3 and B.4
6. 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Oromia Region, Vol. 1, part 1, Tables 2.1, 2.13, 2.16, 2.20 (accessed 6 April 2009)

Coordinates: 8°55′N 41°40′E / 8.917°N 41.667°E