Shashamane

Shashamane is a Rift Valley town on the Addis Ababa–Hawassa road, known internationally for its Rastafarian community. In 1948, Emperor Haile Selassie donated 500 hectares of land here to the Ethiopian World Federation, as thanks to the pan-African diaspora that had supported Ethiopia during the Italian occupation. Settlement was gradual: the first Rastafarian arrivals came in the mid-1960s, and immigration built up over the following years to a peak population sometimes cited above 2,000. The community faced a setback after Haile Selassie's overthrow in 1974, when the Derg's land-nationalization policies confiscated much of the original grant, and numbers have since declined substantially — reported at under a few hundred residents in the 2000s. Despite that, Shashamane remains a symbolically important site for Rastafari worldwide and a welcoming, multicultural stop for travelers.

• Hawassa — 30 km south.
• Wondo Genet — 15 km south.
• Adama — 100 km north.