Bahir Dar
Bahir Dar is the capital city of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The city is known for its wide avenues lined with palm trees and a variety of colorful flowers. In 2002, it was awarded the UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization.
History
Origins
Originally the settlement was called Bahir Giyorgis. Between 1810 and 1900, Bahir Dar had 1,200 to 2,000 inhabitants. It was developed in situ as a monastery and function of trading hub. In the 19th century, Bahir Dar was visited by Belgian, French, British and Italian travelers, who described it alternatively as a village or a town.20th century
During the early 20th century, the British, desiring to construct a barrage at the outlet of Lake Tana, dispatched several study teams, such as those of Dupis, Grabham and Black and Cheesman. In 1930 the Ethiopian Government sent to Bahir Dar its own team of experts, who described Bahir Dar as a village with considerable trading activity, with a population from the interior as well as from Lake Tana ports such as Zege. At this time Bahir Dar was characterized by various traditional settlement areas, each of which was distinguished by the social position its members occupied. The kahenat and balabbat communities were the most prestigious. In addition, three groups of tenant-craftsman communities, tanners, Muslims weavers and the Weyto stone-mill grinders, lived on balabbat lands. Although all were economically interdependent, there was no intermarriage between the tenant communities or between them and the balabbat and kahenat.In May 1936, Bahir Dar was occupied by the Italians, who gave it modern urban features. Abolishing communal family ownership of land known as "Rists," they instituted private ownership. Alienating the balabbats from their rists, they allocated land for administration, the army, an airstrip and port facilities. New residential and commercial zones were demarcated. Bahir Dar was connected by motor-boats with other Lake Tana ports and by motor roads with Gonder, Debre Marqos and Addis Ababa. The physical and social appearance of Bahir Dar was considerably changed. New settlement patterns emerged: an Italian camp, a Muslim community and a Weyto quarter, while the tanners' quarter remained unaffected. Bahir Dar became a melting-pot of different people and cultures. In the commercial zone, different types of shops, tea-rooms, tailor shops, bars and restaurants run by foreigners made their first appearance. Ethiopian influence on this reorganization was insignificant.
The Italians gave Bahir Dar political importance by making it the administrative center of the Lake Tana southern territories. They were also interested in the agricultural development of Lake Tana and the Blue Nile and in exploiting their waters for hydroelectric power. In 1941, the Ethiopian Government was reinstated. It made Bahir Dar a sub-district capital and then a district capital. Various offices and public services were set up. In 1945 Bahir Dar was raised to the status of a municipality. In the early 1950s, it was considered to be the best potential site for the construction of an alternative capital of Ethiopia.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Bahir Dar grew rapidly, being the capital of the eponymous awrajja in the Gojjam province. The central government developed the city as a market and transportation center of the economic growth of Lake Tana and the Blue Nile basin. A comprehensive master plan, with new zoning, was prepared by German experts. Its implementation completely changed the physical appearance of Bahir Dar, due to industrial and economic development. It was provided with a water supply, hydroelectric power, improved lake-port facilities, the Abbay Bridge, textile mills, a hospital, and the institutions of higher education which now form Bahir Dar University.
During the Ethiopian Civil War, in May 1988 the 603rd corp of the Third Revolutionary Army made its headquarters at Bahir Dar. On 3–4 March 1990, the TLA abandoned Bahir Dar in disarray, blowing up the nearby bridge with several hundred soldiers which stopped the opposing Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front forces from occupying the city. However, the EPRDF had stated that they lacked the resources in the area to capture the town at that time, and the Derg army reoccupied Bahir Dar a few days later. The EPRDF gained permanent control of the city at around 18:10 hours on 23 February 1991, as one of the objectives of Operation Tewodros. In the 1990s Bahir Dar experienced remarkable growth and expansion. It has become the capital of the Amhara National State. The country's free-market economic policy has encouraged investment and other market potentialities. Today Bahir Dar is not only a center of administration but also a nucleus of commerce, industry, transport, communication, health, education and tourism.
21st century
The city, in honor of the Millennium celebrations, hosted a National Investment Bazaar and Trade Fair on 6–9 January 2007. Mulat Gezahegn, head of the Trade, Industry and Investment Promotion Coordination Office, told journalists that more than 150 local and foreign companies participated.On 22 June 2019, during the Amhara Region coup d'état attempt, there were coordinated assassinations of Amhara Region government officials in Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa. Assassination victims included General Se'are Mekonnen, President of Amhara Region Ambachew Mekonnen and Amhara Region Attorney General Megbaru Kebede. On 24 June, state media announced that General Asaminew Tsige had been shot dead in Bahir Dar.
Geography
Bahir Dar is located at the exit of the Abbay from Lake Tana at an altitude of above sea level. The city is located approximately 578 km north-northwest of Addis Ababa. The Lake Tana region is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2015.Climate
Bahir Dar has a borderline tropical savanna climate, very close to a subtropical highland climate. Afternoon temperatures are very warm to hot year-round, and morning temperatures cool; however, the diurnal range is much larger in the largely cloudless dry season.Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia, Bahir Dar Special Zone had a total population of 221,991, of whom 108,456 were male and 113,535 female; 180,174 or 81.16% were urban inhabitants, the rest of population were living in rural kebeles around Bahir Dar. As Philip Briggs notes, Bahir Dar "is not only one of the largest towns in Ethiopia, but also one of the fastest growing – the western outskirts have visibly expanded since...1994." In fact, Bahir Dar City had an average annual population growth of 5.31% from 2007 to 2023, while Bahir Dar Special Zone had an annual growth rate of 4.75%.Ethnic and linguistic composition
As of 2007, the three largest ethnic groups reported in Bahir Dar Special Zone were the Amhara, the Tigrayan, and the Oromo ; all other ethnic groups made up 1.56% of the population. Amharic was spoken as a first language by 96.77%, Oromiffa by 1.03%, and Tigrinya by 0.98%; the remaining 1.22% spoke all other primary languages reported.The 1994 national census had reported a total population for Bahir Dar of 96,140 in 20,857 households, of whom 45,436 were men and were 50,704 women. The three largest ethnic groups reported in the city were the Amhara, the Tigrayan, and the Agew ; all other ethnic groups made up 2.11% of the population. Amharic was spoken as a first language by 95.52%, and 2.93% spoke Tigrinya; the remaining 1.55% spoke all other primary languages reported.
The Wayto caste
In 1938, an Italian tourist guide noted well established Wayto villages on Bahir Dar's lakeshore.The Wayto nowadays live in three distinct villages within Bahir Dar's city boundaries; the buildings are made of clay with thatched roofs and have a lifespan of about five years.
In Bahir Dar, the Wayto are outcast because their traditional lifestyle is considered impure; for the Orthodox Christians the food habits are impure, and the Muslim community does not recognise them because the Wayto continue to worship the Nile River. Hence, the majority of the population remains wary of the Wayto.
The health of the Wayto community in Bahir Dar is affected because they continue drinking the lake water, which has become strongly polluted.
The Wayto villages need regularly to change their place by order of the authorities for several reasons:
- ritual places are contested by other population groups;
- Amhara have greater financial power to obtain the land;
- the Wayto do not hold land titles; and
- overall, they have a weak position in negotiation.
Religions
The 1994 national census reported 87.53% practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and 11.47% of the population said they were Muslim.
The Ethiopian Catholics, who practice the Alexandrian Rite in Geez language, have a cathedral in the city, which is the Episcopal See since 2015 of the Ethiopic Catholic Diocese of Bahir Dar–Dessie, one of the suffragan eparchies of the Ethiopian Catholic Archeparchy of Addis Abeba, a Metropolitanate sui juris.
Culture
The city offers a small daily market and a very extensive weekly market. There are some music clubs in the city.The Blue Nile Falls are located about 30 km to the south. Nowadays the amount of water running through the falls is being reduced and regulated, since the construction of a hydroelectric power dam. Nevertheless, the Blue Nile Falls are still one of the main tourist attractions of Bahir Dar, especially during the rainy season when the water level rises and the falls become greater.