Beica (also called Begi, Germus) is a town in southwestern Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, the town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1673 meters above sea level. Beica hosts an airport (IATA code GDE), with regular flights by Ethiopian Airlines, and has postal service. Based on 2005 figures from the Central Statistical Agency, Beica has an estimated total population of 6,106 of whom 3,033 were males and 3,073 were females.[1] Beica is the largest settlement in Begi woreda.
History
The Dutch explorer Juan Maria Schuver visited Beica during his first explorations between the White and Blue Niles (August 1881). He described the settlement as "a large village" that was recovering from a recent famine, but at the time of his visit "with extensive plantations of durra, maize, angolib (a species of edible, sweet durra-stalk) and cabbage. Every house had its small garden of tobacco, beans, yams and shieta, the minute red pepper."[2] By the 1930s, Beica had become the seat of Sheik Kojali, governor of Benishangul, and the major town of that region. Gold was reported to be found in the area. During the Italian occupation, the governor was Sheik Abd al-Khair.[3] The Oromo Liberation Front held their first national congress in Beica February, 1988, having taken control of much of the Ethiopian territory along the Sudan border.[4]
Notes
- ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.4
- ^ Wendy James, Gerd Baumann and Douglas H. Johnson (ed. and trans.), Juan Maria Schuver's Travels in North East Africa (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1996), p. 48
- ^ "Local History in Ethiopia" (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 30 December 2007)
- ^ Ethiopia: A Country Study, "Other movements and Fronts", U.S. Library of Congress
