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This gari is crossing the Addis Ababa-Dire Dawa Road in Adama, Ethiopia.

Adama (Oromo Adaama, Ge'ez ኣዳማ ādāmā), better known^[1] as Nazret or Nazreth (ናዝሬት nāzrēt), is a city in Ethiopia and the current capital of the Oromia Region. It is located in the Misraq Shewa Zone of Oromia, at 8.55° N 39.27° E at an elevation of 1712 meters, approximately 100 km southeast of Addis Ababa. The city sits below an escarpment to the west, and above the Great Rift Valley to the east.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this city has an estimated total population of 228,623, of whom 114,255 were males and were 114,368 females;^[2] other estimates confirm that the current population exceeds 200,000.^[3] According to the 1994 census, the population was 127,842.

Adama is a busy transportation center. The city is situated along the road that connects Addis Ababa with Dire Dawa. A large number of trucks use this same route to travel to and from the seaports of Djibouti and Asseb (though the latter is not currently used by Ethiopia, following the Eritrean-Ethiopian War). Additionally, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railroad runs through Adama.

Adama University (formerly Adama Technical Teachers College) is located in Adama. Adama Stadium is the home of Adama City FC, a member of the Ethiopian Football Federation league.

Emperor Haile Selassie renamed the town after Biblical Nazareth, and this name was used throughout the twentieth century. The city has officially reverted to its original Oromo language name, Adama, though "Nazareth" is still widely used.

In the early twenty-first century, the Ethiopian government moved the regional capital of Oromia from Addis Ababa to Adama, sparking considerable controversy. Critics of the move believed that the Ethiopian government wished to deemphasize Addis Ababa's location within Oromia.^[4][5] On the other hand, the government maintained that Addis Ababa "has been found inconvenient from the point of view of developing the language, culture and history of the Oromo people."^[6]

On June 10, 2005, the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), part of the ruling EPRDF coalition, officially announced plans to move the regional capital back to Finfinne (the Oromo name for Addis Ababa).^[7] This announcement occurred during the aftermath of Ethiopia's most democratic elections to date, in which the governing coalition lost all of its seats in Addis Ababa's municipal administration (see Ethiopian general elections, 2005). The opposition parties speculated that the move was intended as a way to split them along ethnic lines by inciting the largely non-Oromo residents of Addis Ababa to oppose the return of the Oromia government to the Ethiopian capital.^{[citation needed]} The only comments from the opposition that the move inspired, however, was that the original move to Adama had been a massive waste of money, not to mention lives, as the government had cracked down on Oromo students who had protested the move from Finfinne to Adama. In any event, non-Oromo groups did not oppose the return of Oromia government offices to Addis Ababa.

1. ^ Alain Gascon, "Adaama" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003, p.70.
2. ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.3
3. ^ Butler, Rhett A. (2004). 2005 population estimates for cities in Ethiopia. Mongabay.com. Retrieved on February 28, 2006.
4. ^ Hameso, Seyoum and Tilahun Ayanou Nebo (2000). Ethiopia: A New Start?. The Sidama Concern. Retrieved on February 25, 2006.
5. ^ Mosisa, Abraham T. (January 13, 2004). Letter to U.N. Secretary-General. Oromo Studies Association. Retrieved on February 25, 2006.
6. ^ Nazareth Selected as Oromiya's Capital. Walta Information Center (July 13, 2000). Retrieved on February 25, 2006.
7. ^ Chief Administrator of Oromia says decision to move capital city based on study. Walta Information Center (2005-06-11). Archived from the original on 2005-06-13. Retrieved on February 25, 2006.

• Briggs, Philip. Guide to Ethiopia. Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 1995. ISBN 1-56440-814-0

• Adama Chamber of Commerce
• Adama travel guide from Wikitravel