Dangila

One of the earliest mentions of Dangila was when the Emperor Susenyos passed through the town in 1620.[1]

As late as the 1930s, Dangila was an important center of the African slave trade. Nagadras Habtewerq, director of customs in the town during the early 1930s, achieved a measure of success in liberating slaves despite the determined opposition of influential figures like the slaver Fitawrari Zelleqe.[2]

The British maintained a consulate in Dangila in the 1920s and 1930s, manned by R.E. Cheesman, who spent a considerable amount of energy mapping Agawmeder and nearby Gojjam.[3]

Dangila has played a role in Ethiopian literature. As a young man, Haddis Alemayehu, who was to become the foremost Amharic fiction writer, served for two years as a customs clerk at Dangila in the early 1930s. When consul Cheesman left, the consulate building was turned into a primary school, and Haddis Alemayehu became its headmaster for a year. Another author is Abe Gubegna, who attended grades 1-8 at the Bitwedded Mengesha Jembere school in the 1950s.[2]

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Dangila has an estimated total population of 26,704 of whom 12,916 are men and 13,788 are women.[4] The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 15,437 of whom 6,796 were men and 8,641 were women.