{{alternateuses}} Image:GariAdama.jpg is crossing the Addis_Ababa-Dire_Dawa Road in Adama, Ethiopia.]] '''Adama''' (Ethiopic '''ኣዳማ'''), also known as '''Nazareth''' or '''Nazret''' (Ethiopic '''ናዝሬት'''), is a City in Ethiopia and the current Capital of the Oromia Administrative State. It is located at {{coor d|8.55|N|39.27|E|type:city}}, 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. The 1994 population was 127,842. Recent estimates indicate that the current population exceeds 200,000.http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/2005_world_city_populations/Ethiopia.html http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1120018102&men;=gpro&lng;=en&gln;=xx&dat;=32&geo;=-73&srt;=npan&col;=aohdq&pt;=c&va;=&geo;=354801927 Adama is one of the largest cities in Ethiopia and continues to grow rapidly. ==Overview== 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 Assab (though the latter is not currently used by Ethiopia, following the Eritrean-Ethiopian_War). Additionally, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railroad runs through Adama. ==History== Emperor Haile Selassie renamed the town after Biblical Nazareth, and this name was used throughout the Twentieth_century. The city has officially reverted to 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.http://www.sidamaconcern.com/books/ethiopia_a_new_start.html,http://oromostudies.org/lettertoUNSecretaryGeneral.htm 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."http://www.waltainfo.com/ennews/2000/jul/13jul00/jul13e3.htm On June_10, 2005, the Oromo People Democratic Organization (OPDO), part of the ruling EPRDF coalition, officially announced plans to move the regional capital back to Addis Ababa, also known as Finfinne (the original name in the Oromo_language). According to the government-affiliated Walta Information Center, this announcement was met with widespread enthusiasm among Adama residents and Oromo scholars.http://www.waltainfo.com/ennews/2005/jun/10jun05/jun10e14.htm, http://www.waltainfo.com/ennews/2005/jun/15jun05/jun15e3.htm, http://www.waltainfo.com/ennews/2005/jun/14jun05/jun14e11. However, 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 capital. 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 govenment 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 govenment offices to Addis Ababa. ==Further reading== *Briggs, Philip. ''Guide to Ethiopia.'' Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 1995. ISBN 1-56440-814-0 ==External links== *Adama Chamber of Commerce *{{wikitravel}} Category:Cities_in_Ethiopia Ca:Adama De:Nazret Fr:Nazareth_(Éthiopie)