Dessie

Dessie ደሴ
City
View of Dessie
Flag
Dessie Location in Ethiopia
Coordinates: 11°8′N 39°38′E
Country	Ethiopia
Region	Amhara
Zone	South Wollo Zone
Founded	1882
Founded by	Yohannes IV
Government
• Mayor	Alebachew Yesuf
Area
• Total	15.08 km2 (5.82 sq mi)
Elevation	2,470 m (8,100 ft)
Population  (2012)
• Total	610,431
• Density	40,000/km2 (100,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+3 (EAT)
Area code	33

Dessie (Template:Lang-am; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a city and zone in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Amhara Region, it sits at a latitude and longitude of 11°8′N 39°38′E, with an elevation between 2,470 and 2,550 metres above sea level. Dessie is 400 km to the north of the capital Addis Ababa. It has a population of more than 200,000 people in over 30 districts.

History

16th-17th Century

Prior to Dessie's foundation, the major settlement in this area was Wasal, first mentioned in an early 16th-century Italian itinerary.

19th Century

Dessie was founded by Emperor Yohannes IV who was camping in the highlands to the west of the Chefa Valley in 1882 on an expedition to forcefully convert the Amhara Muslims who lived in the region to Christianity. As he was looking for a place to centralize his power in the newly conquered region of Wollo, he stayed overnight in a pre-existing town that is now contained within Dessie. While there, he spotted a comet. He was so impressed by the sight of it that he interpreted it to be a sign from heaven to found his capital city there. Thus, he named it Dessie (Amharic: "My Joy"), as a reference to the elation that the comet had made him feel.

20th Century

Dessie's location led to the telegraph line the Italians constructed between 1902 and 1904 from Asmara south to Addis Ababa passing through the city, and giving it a local telegraph office. Also in 1904, the Italian Giuseppe Bonaiuti took part in constructing a fair-weather road connecting the city to Addis Ababa.

Dessie increased in importance when Ras Mikael, son-in-law to Emperor Menelik II, made it his base. The city was where his son, would-be emperor Lij Iyasus, crowned Mikael negus around 1915. During his residence in Dessie, the Negus built a palace and the church Enda Medhane Alem, said to be placed on the site of a church destroyed by Imam Ahmed Gragn. The church is decorated with paintings which include portraits of Ras Mikael and his son.

After the defeat of his father Negus Mikael, Lij Iyasu took refuge in Dessie beginning on 8 November 1916 while unsuccessfully seeking support from Ras Wolde Giyorgis and other major nobles of northern Ethiopia. However, Ras Wolde Giyorgis used these overtures to extract concessions from the central government, then marched on Dessie which Lij Iyasu fled 10 December.

During the Italian invasion, Dessie was first bombed 6 December 1935; the American Hospital was one of the buildings damaged in the attack. Emperor Haile Selassie was photographed personally machine-gunning the raiding planes. The city was occupied by the Italians 15 April 1936.

Dessie became an important administrative center under the Italian occupation, and the Franciscans established in 1937 the Latin Catholic missionary Apostolic Prefecture of Dessié, which would be suppressed in 1957 after its only prefect's death.

The Italian garrison of the city surrendered 26 April 1941 to Brigadier Pienaar's 1st South African Brigade and 500 arbegnoch, and after the Second World War, the town continued in importance as the capital of the province of Wollo until the province's abolition in 1995.

In a decree of 1942, Dessie is listed as one of only six "Schedule A" municipalities in Ethiopia, while there were about a hundred in "Schedule B". Artist Essaye Gebre-Medhin Fikre was born in Dessie in 1949. He gained a B.A. in Addis Ababa and an M.A. in Paris but was self-taught as an artist. In 1955, a public address system was installed in the central square which was used to re-broadcast announcements on Radio Addis Ababa to the public. In 1957, Dessie had one of 9 provincial secondary schools (excluding Eritrea) in Ethiopia, named after Woizero Sehine the daughter of Negus Mikael.

In February 1973, a crowd of 1,500 peasants marched from Dessie to the capital to make the authorities notice the famine in Wollo. They were stopped by police on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and forced to return. Following the Ethiopian revolution, one of the few major encounters between rebels and government forces took place north-west of Dessie in October 1976. Instigated by the local landlord, a large group of peasants marched on the city; troops of the Derg fired into the crowd. Reports of the death toll vary widely, from several hundred to nearly a thousand. In October 1989 Dessie was almost captured by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The EPRDF took permanent control of the city on 18 May 1990, as part of Operation Wallelign.

21st Century

Dessie became affected by the Tigray War as the troops of the Tigray Region crossed into Amhara region, in order to force the Ethiopian government to come to a negotiated settlement. On 10 August 2021, in view of the southward offensive of the Tigray Defense Forces, the city administration of Dessie imposed a curfew.

Main article: Lynching of Wollo University professors

On 22 October 2021, the Amhara fano (militia) organised a mob in Dessie to publicly lynch Wollo University professors Birhanu Gidey and Haile Habenom because of their Tigrayan origin. The lynching occurred in a context of progression of the Tigray Defence Forces towards Dessie, after they reverted the ENDF’s 2021 Tigray offensive. Earlier on, lists of Wollo University staff of Tigrayan origin had been circulated.

Cityscape

Dessie is home to a museum, in the former home of Dejazmach Yoseph Birru. It also has a zawiya of the Qadiriyya order of Islam, which was the first Sufi order to be introduced into north-east Africa.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), Dessie woreda has a total population of 151,174, of whom 72,932 are men and 78,242 women; 120,095 or 79.44% are urban inhabitants living in the town of Dessie, the rest of the population is living at rural kebeles around Dessie. The majority of the inhabitants were Ethiopian Orthodox, with 58.62% reporting that as their religion, while 39.92% of the population said they practiced Islam and 1.15% were Protestants.

The 1994 national census reported a total population for Dessie of 97,314 in 17,426 households, of whom 45,337 were men and 51,977 were women. The two largest ethnic groups reported in this town were the Amhara (92.83%) and the Tigrayan (4.49%); all other ethnic groups made up 2.68% of the population.

Amharic was spoken as a first language by 94.89% and 3.79% spoke Tigrinya; the remaining 0.67% spoke all other primary languages reported.

Main article: Languages of Ethiopia

Languages spoken in Dessie as of 2007

  Amharic (94.89%)

  Tigrinya (3.79%)

  Other (1.32%)

Religion

The 2007 national census reported 59% of the inhabitants practiced Christianity with 41% of the population having reported they practiced Islam .

The 1994 national census reported 63% of the inhabitants professed Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity with 37% of the population having reported they practiced Islam.

The small Eastern Catholic minority is part of the Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Bahir Dar–Dessie.

Economy

Dessie is located along Ethiopian Highway 2. It has postal service (a post office was established in the 1920s), and telephone service from at least as early as 1954. The city has had electrical power since at least 1963 when a new diesel-powered electric power station with a power line to Kombolcha was completed, at a cost of Eth$ 110,000. Intercity bus service is provided by the Selam Bus Line Share Company. Dessie shares Combolcha Airport (ICAO code HADC, IATA DSE) with neighbouring Kombolcha.

Climate

Dessie is located at an altitude of 2,470 metres (8,100 ft) above sea level in low-shrouded mountains and hills. Dessie has a subtropical highland climate (Cwb). More to the east, there is a hot semi-arid climate (Bsh).

Climate data for Dessie
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	22.7 (72.9)	23.1 (73.6)	22.4 (72.3)	23.4 (74.1)	24.5 (76.1)	25.3 (77.5)	24.1 (75.4)	23.0 (73.4)	22.2 (72.0)	22.6 (72.7)	21.7 (71.1)	22.0 (71.6)	23.1 (73.6)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	5.4 (41.7)	7.1 (44.8)	6.9 (44.4)	8.4 (47.1)	8.1 (46.6)	9 (48)	10.3 (50.5)	10 (50)	9.2 (48.6)	6.3 (43.3)	4.1 (39.4)	4.1 (39.4)	7.4 (45.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	25 (1.0)	40 (1.6)	81 (3.2)	95 (3.7)	75 (3.0)	41 (1.6)	273 (10.7)	283 (11.1)	144 (5.7)	45 (1.8)	20 (0.8)	23 (0.9)	1,145 (45.1)
Source: Climate-Data.org, altitude: 2,470m

Notable locals

• Yekuno Amlak, founder of the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopian emperors
• Mohammed Al Amoudi, the second-richest person of Black African descent in the world

Culture

Above, a local woman wearing a "habesha kemis" with embellishments of crosses all over the dress

Dessie is known to be a part of the Wollo culture, thus having a style of cultural clothing, as well as significant dances. Men's traditional clothing is similar to most of amhara region of Ethiopia. Women's traditional clothing includes a habesha kemis, which is the name of the dress, as well as a matching scarf, sometimes two, one tied around the waist and the other over the hair.

External links

Media related to Dessie at Wikimedia Commons