Goba

---

title: "Goba" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-in-the-oromia", "cities-and-towns-in-ethiopia"] description: "Town in Oromia Region, Ethiopia" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goba" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Town in Oromia Region, Ethiopia ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
official_name	Goba
other_name	Bale Goba
native_name
settlement_type	Town
image_skyline	Men at work in Goba.jpg
image_caption	Photo taken while in Goba Wednesday Market
pushpin_map	Ethiopia#Africa#Earth
pushpin_label_position	right
pushpin_map_caption	Location within Ethiopia
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	EthiopiaEthiopia
subdivision_type1	Region
subdivision_name1	OromiaOromia
subdivision_type2	Zone
subdivision_name2	Bale
subdivision_type3	District
subdivision_name3	Goba
leader_title	Current Mayor
leader_name	Shimels Alemu
leader_title1
established_title	Founded
established_date	1900
established_title2	Founded by
established_date2	Darge Sahle Selassie
established_title3	First Mayor
established_date3	Blata Cheru (1945)
unit_pref
area_total_km2
area_land_km2
area_land_sq_mi	10.345
population_as_of	2016
population_total	54,630
population_density_km2	2,085
population_metro	70,810
population_urban	49,309
timezone	EAT
utc_offset	+3
coordinates
elevation_footnotes	tags--
elevation_m	2743
postal_code_type	Post Code
postal_code	4540
area_code	(+251) 22
blank_name	Climate
blank_info	Cwb
::

::callout[type=note] the town in Ethiopia ::

| official_name = Goba | other_name = Bale Goba | native_name = | native_name_lang = | nickname = | settlement_type = Town | motto = | image_skyline = Men at work in Goba.jpg | imagesize = | image_caption = Photo taken while in Goba Wednesday Market |image_flag = | flag_size = | image_seal = | seal_size = | image_shield = | shield_size = | city_logo = | citylogo_size = | image_map = | mapsize = | map_caption = | image_map1 = | mapsize1 = | map_caption1 = | image_dot_map = | dot_mapsize = | dot_map_caption = | dot_x = | dot_y = | pushpin_map = Ethiopia#Africa#Earth | pushpin_label_position = right | pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ethiopia | pushpin_mapsize = | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = EthiopiaEthiopia | subdivision_type1 = Region | subdivision_name1 = OromiaOromia | subdivision_type2 = Zone | subdivision_name2 = Bale | subdivision_type3 = District | subdivision_name3 = Goba | subdivision_type4 = | subdivision_name4 = | government_footnotes = | government_type = | leader_title = Current Mayor | leader_name = Shimels Alemu | leader_title1 = | leader_name1 = | leader_title2 = | leader_name2 = | leader_title3 = | leader_name3 = | leader_title4 = | leader_name 4 = | established_title = Founded | established_date = 1900 | established_title2 = Founded by | established_date2 = Darge Sahle Selassie | established_title3 = First Mayor | established_date3 = Blata Cheru (1945) | area_magnitude = | unit_pref = | area_footnotes = | area_total_km2 = | area_land_km2 = | area_water_km2 = | area_total_sq_mi = | area_land_sq_mi = 10.345 | area_water_sq_mi = | area_water_percent = | area_urban_km2 = | area_urban_sq_mi = | area_metro_km2 = | area_metro_sq_mi = | population_as_of = 2016 | population_footnotes = | population_note = | population_total = 54,630 | population_density_km2 = 2,085 | population_density_sq_mi = | population_metro = 70,810 | population_density_metro_km2 = | population_density_metro_sq_mi = | population_urban = 49,309 | population_density_urban_km2 = | population_density_urban_sq_mi = | population_blank1_title = | population_blank1 = | population_density_blank1_km2 = | population_density_blank1_sq_mi = | timezone = EAT | utc_offset = +3 | timezone_DST = | utc_offset_DST = | coordinates = | elevation_footnotes = tags-- | elevation_m = 2743 | elevation_ft = | postal_code_type = Post Code | postal_code = 4540 | area_code = (+251) 22 | blank_name = Climate | blank_info = Cwb | blank1_name = | blank1_info = | website = | footnotes = | name = **Goba ** (Oromo: Gobbaa, Amharic: ጎባ) is a town and separate woreda located in the Bale Zone of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia, approximately 446 km southeast of Addis Ababa, this city has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2743 m above sea level.

The town is known for its Wednesday market and for honey, basketry, and cotton shawl making; Bale National Park is 10 km to the southwest. A few kilometers (miles) outside of Goba are the remains of an old rock church. Goba shares Robe Airport (ICAO code HAGB, IATA GOB) with neighbouring Robe.

Ethiopian Airlines has a scheduled flight four times a week connecting Goba to the capital Addis Ababa and to the southern city Arba Minch.

History

Ras Darge Sahle Selassie advance into southern Arsi and Bale led to the development of a camp at Goba in 1900, which was the site of a medieval Christian rock church or monastery. In 1907 Goba became the main center of administration in Bale under the governorship of Leul Sagad.

Arnold Weinholt Hodson visited Goba while he was the British resident in southern Ethiopia (1914–1923), briefly describing it as a "large garrison town."

Goba was the capital of the former Bale Province, until the province was abolished with the adoption of the new constitution in 1995. A telephone line connected Goba to Addis Ababa at least as early as 1936. During the Bale revolt, rebels attacked the capital twice between November 1965 and March 1966. In 1970 the town had the only high school in Bale Province; that year the school had 682 students, of whom 86 were Muslims in a province where Islam claimed over 90 per cent of the population.

According to the third edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Ethiopia, "Goba is in a state of decline and Ethiopian Airlines has even cancelled its flights here."

Starting from 1 September 2014, Ethiopian Airlines has announced a scheduled service four time per week to Robe Airport connecting Goba to Addis Ababa and Arba Minch.

Demographics

The 2007 national census reported a total population for Goba of 32,025, of whom 15,182 were men and 16,843 were women; 4,797 or 6.13% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 69.84% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 23.12% of the population were Muslim and 5.84% were Protestant.

The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 28,358 of whom 13,155 were men and 15,203 were women.

Climate

Owing to its very high altitude, Goba has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb) with cool to cold mornings and mild to warm afternoons year-round. There is a lengthy rainy season from February/March to October, and a short dry season with chillier mornings from November to January. |location = Goba |metric first = yes |single line = yes |Jan high C = 23.3 |Feb high C = 23.6 |Mar high C = 23.8 |Apr high C = 22.6 |May high C = 23.1 |Jun high C = 23.6 |Jul high C = 22.5 |Aug high C = 22.0 |Sep high C = 22.0 |Oct high C = 21.3 |Nov high C = 21.4 |Dec high C = 22.5 |Jan low C = 7.1 |Feb low C = 7.5 |Mar low C = 8.7 |Apr low C = 9.7 |May low C = 9.5 |Jun low C = 9.4 |Jul low C = 9.7 |Aug low C = 9.7 |Sep low C = 9.6 |Oct low C = 8.7 |Nov low C = 6.8 |Dec low C = 6.5 |Jan rain mm = 38 |Feb rain mm = 55 |Mar rain mm = 101 |Apr rain mm = 162 |May rain mm = 150 |Jun rain mm = 109 |Jul rain mm = 151 |Aug rain mm = 187 |Sep rain mm = 149 |Oct rain mm = 110 |Nov rain mm = 44 |Dec rain mm = 16 |rain colour = green |source 1 = Climate-Data.org, altitude: 2427 m

References

References

1. Camerapix, ''Spectrum Guide to Ethiopia'' (Brooklyn: Interlink, 2000), p. 154
2. Pankhurst, Richard. (1982). "History of Ethiopian towns from the mid 19th century to 1935". Steiner.
3. Arnold Hodson, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1779535 "Southern Abyssinia"], ''Geographical Journal'', 53 (1919), p. 73
4. [https://nai.uu.se/library/resources/thematic-resources/local-history-of-ethiopia.html "Local History of Ethiopia"] The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 22 April 2022)
5. Gebru Tareke, ''Ethiopia: Power and Protest: Peasant Revolts in the Twentieth Century ''(Lawrenceville: Red Sea, 1996), p. 145
6. As Gebru Tareke grimly concludes, "Between February 1970, when the revolt ended, and February 1974, when the imperial regime collapsed, precious little had changed in Bale, as indeed in the rest of Ethiopia."Gebru Tareke, ''Ethiopia'', p. 158
7. Matt Philips and Jean-Bernard Carillet, ''Ethiopia and Eritrea'', third edition (n.p.: Lonely Planet, 2006), p. 190
8. Ethiopian Airlines, [http://www.ethiopianairlines.com/en/network/domestic/], Accessed 02/09/14
9. link. (13 November 2011 , Tables 2.1, 2.5, 3.4 (accessed 13 January 2012))
10. "Climate: Goba – Climate graph, Temperature graph, Climate table". Climate-Data.org.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::