Nekemte

Nekemte (Oromo: Naqamtee) is a town in the Misraq Welega Zone of western Oromia, at an elevation of about 2,088 m. According to local tradition it was founded by Bakaree Godaana, the first Oromo ruler of Leqa, who established a market here in the early 19th century. The town's foremost landmark is the Kumsa Moroda Palace, begun in the 1880s under Dejazmach Kumsa Moroda, the last independent ruler of the Leqa Nekemte kingdom before it submitted to the Ethiopian Empire in 1892; the renovated palace compound can be toured and houses displays on the Kumsa Moroda family and the governance of Welega in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Nekemte was the capital of the former Welega Province and is also the burial place of Onesimos Nesib, who — with Aster Ganno — produced the first translation of the Bible into the Oromo language. The town is home to a museum of Wollega Oromo culture.