Dangila - History

History

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

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 Gojjame figures like the slaver Fitawrari Zelleqe.

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.

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 Abbe Gubennya, who attended grades 1-8 at the Bitwedded Mengesha Jembere school in the 1950s.