Historically,Ethiopia was divided intoprovinces, further subdivided intoawrajjas or districts, until they were replaced byethnolinguistic-basedregions (kililoch) and chartered cities in 1995.[1][2]
Older provinces (existing prior to the 1936–41fascist Italian occupation), are still frequently used to indicate locations within Ethiopia. These include:
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Ethiopia was divided into 12 provinces or governates-general (taklai ghizat) by Imperial Ethiopian Government Decree No. 1 of 1942 and later amendments.[3] The 12 provinces were:
Bale was created as a 13th province when it was split off from Harrarghe in 1960.Eritrea was united with Ethiopia and made a 14th province in 1962.[3]
When theDerg took power in 1974 they relabelled the provinces as regions (kifle hager).[4]: 222 By 1981Addis Ababa had become a separate administrative division from Shewa, andAseb was split off from Eritrea in 1981, making 16 administrative divisions in total.[4]: 334 With the exception of Arsi (whose name derives from theeponymous Oromo subgroup, and which initially included majority-Gurage area later transferred toShewa province (becoming Southern Shewa), all of the provinces were deliberately drawn to include multiple "tribes" (or ethnicities) so as to better facilitate national cohesion.[verification needed]
Under the1987 Constitution of Ethiopia, the military rule of the Derg evolved into the civilian government of thePeople's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and chapter 8 of the Constitution determined that the state would be subdivided into "autonomous regions" and "administrative regions". Chapter 9 gave to theNational Shengo (the legislature) the power to establish the regions.[5] The Shengo established the regions in Proclamation No. 14 of 1987, on 18 September. There were thirty regions, consisting of five autonomous regions, and twenty-five administrative regions. The five autonomous regions were:[4]: 223
The twenty-five administrative regions were:[4]: xxiii
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Multi-ethnic civic nationalism | |||
