Shashemene

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Students on their way to the university in Shashemene

Shashemene (official spelling Shaashamannee , in Western literature also Shashamane or Shashemenne ) is a city in the southern part of the Ethiopian province of Shewa or in today's state of Oromiyaa with about 102,190 inhabitants. It is located about 250 kilometers south of the capital Addis Ababa . Many of Shashemene's residents are members of the Rastafari movement, who originally came from Jamaica and had emigrated to Ethiopia, which is considered the "promised land" in the Rastafarian doctrine of salvation.

history

The name goes back to a woman named Shashe who ran a kind of pension. This is called Oromo mannee in the regional language .

Shashemene was founded as a garrison town in the 19th century , but only received international attention when the then Ethiopian Neguse Negest Haile Selassie donated 500 hectares of land to western Africans in 1948 . Between 1950 and 1974 about 22 families from Jamaica moved to Shashemene. Most of them were followers of the Rastafarian faith.

In the course of the land reform carried out throughout Ethiopia under Derg rule in 1975, the donation was reversed. After violent protests by the settlers, around 50 hectares were given back.

Today around 80 families from the USA , Jamaica and Europe who are supporters of the Rastafarian movement are said to live there. For 2017, the number of Rastafarians in the place is given as around 300.

In 2005, Shashemene was the focus of global media attention when Rita Marley , widow of the world's most famous reggae musician and Rastafarian Bob Marley , was quoted as saying that she wanted to exhume her husband and bury him again in Shashemene. Your statements ultimately turned out to be misinterpretations by the media.

swell

  1. bevölkerungsstatistik.de (2008)
  2. "Rastafarian City in Ethiopia: The Marley Disciples of Shashamane". In: Spiegel-Online from January 31, 2017

Web links

Coordinates: 7 ° 12 '  N , 38 ° 35'  E