The Lost City of Pawe
A curious journey of how I learned about an old thriving socialist utopia
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I saw this video on TikTok, almost three weeks ago. The video talks about በደረግ ዘመን ዝነኛ ከነበሩት ከተመቾ መካካል አንዷ ስለነበረች ፓዌ የምትባል ከተማ። I never heard of that town before and it has an odd name, Pawe. We don’t have a “P” sound let alone name a city እያልኩ ቪዲዮን ማየት ቀጠልኩ፡፡ Then I learned the town is in Benshangul Gumuz Region, now it make sense. The name fits the place. Anyway, the video was like 4 minutes and it was an inspiring one. The narrator talks about how productive and industrious the town was, it was a thriving community as if it was a perfect blend of socialist dream and forgotten civilization. Some of the claims made were so wild that, again my default-wired monkey brain cannot fathom the things he was mentioning. There was quality healthcare, free education, well-developed infrastructure, big mechanized farms with tractors and combine harvesters, and a lot of wonderful stuff that socialism promises but I never imagined it would be true.
I was thinking this is another fantasy we had about the past and it's just a nostalgic story of someone who is not happy with the present. I often resort to this kind of thinking whenever someone is eager about the past times, I know it’s a short wring but….
However, my judgmental monkey brain persisted with the video. Mind you watching a 4-minute-long TikTok. Ikr! I sent the video to my friends and asked them if they knew anything, none of them heard the name before. It's kind of weird, but made-up stories are so common nowadays, that it didn’t bother me much, it's just one of those clickbait videos anyway ….
The next morning, I asked people at the office, and the response was the same. They never heard of the town. But I got more curious, especially since the big claims he mentioned seemed too bold to be just a fantasy or a myth. The dude was saying they used to have a flight, three times a day! They had free water, and one ambulance per Kebele. Like whaaat? They have big town halls and a professional stadium. I traveled to Benshagul Gumuz before, I traveled to the south and some very remote places, I always spark conversation about anything interesting in the areas and nobody ever mentioned this town called Pawe.
I opened my laptop, and the first thing I did that morning was googling Pawe town, it actually exists. There is a short Wikipedia article, “Pawe Special Woreda”, the story is a bit depressing. It was a forced settlement. Nothing glamourous like the TikTok video. There is also a town called “Ketema” nearby, ከተማ የምትባል ከተማ፡፡ I checked the link and it used to be called “መንደር 7”, a typical socialist toponymy. This kind of toponymy is an indicator that it was a planned settlement created with a purpose. It’s a common soviet heritage, they like to name things with numbers. So I rest my case, this is just a random geographical queue that picks my interest, it’s a settlement camp with a gruesome history and moves on.
Then again last time I saw another video, a video from a travel account and it talks about a beautiful waterfall and forgotten irrigation dam in Gambella, again built by Derg. The view is truly stunning! The dude claims there is a scene in “Wakanda” that has been shot there. I was like, dude common! I then immediately googled it and it was a false claim. What a crap!
I go back to that Pawe video to check thinking maybe it’s the same dam. I checked my bookmarked video and it's gone. The video has been deleted! I searched the keyword, checked sent messages, and nothing, I could not find it. Searched with different keywords but I couldn’t find the video or the account.
So I did what a “normal and sane adult” does when they have free time to spend and have a child-like curiosity. I started digging! Our ancestors used to dig the land to plant, for treasures, and to build castles. Since that is now out of fashion, great men of our time spend significant time digging into the virtual world and indulging in conspiracies, geopolitics, and “treasure” hunting.
I searched again and again about this damn city project, I found some links and some Facebook posts, but nothing substantial. Most of the findings were about how terrible the settlement program was and how bloodthirsty Derg was. But I started getting some clues, there was indeed a big irrigation project, settlement, and mechanized farm to combat the famine of the 1980’s. I hit the jackpot when I found a Cambridge University paper, that outlined the details of the project and how the Tana-Beles River Basin was a priority project for Derg in counteracting the devastating effects of the famine. They developed a big irrigation on the Belese River, a tributary river to Abay with the help of the Italian government. Guess who the contractor was? You guessed it right, It was Salini, the same company building the GERD! It was a complex mega-project stretched between politics, engineering, and the unfolding famine, a disaster that kept knocking on our doors for generations. Somehow they managed to build the dam on the Beles River and the settlements followed. To get more, I switched my search keyword to Amharic, and viola! I found the exact video on YouTube!
Then I hop on Google Earth, I know I will see something there, and I also know it has some historical data I can rewind if necessary. Boy, I was surprised by what I saw! I searched for Pawe Special Woreda and zoomed around the location for a minute. Not only there are towns, but it’s also a well-organized and planned settlement with a modern grid urban layout, big warehouses, and an airstrip. It was true they had a big airport! What a surprise! It was a scattered settlement, but it was real and I saw most of the claims made on the video.
There are well-planned roads, a football field, a big roundabout, an agricultural college, and many more. Collectively these villages are probably bigger than Adama, Hawasa, or Bahirdar but somehow they are missing from the mainstream discourse and even I, who think have above-average general knowledge, have no clue.
The top view maps might not show the human suffering of the time as it was written on Wikipedia and various articles, but I found that the TikTok video holds some truth, and it was a thriving agricultural town. Ironically, I felt like I discovered something, something millions of people already knew but I didn't. This must be how the white savior explorers felt when they saw America or India for the first time. I felt my own cold audacity, and giggled!
Today, these settlements are known as Bales Zuriya, it’s a big town and there is a huge sugar mill up the stream to the North. The Tana Beles sugar factory stands north of the settlements with huge swaths of irrigated sugarcane plantations. But the rest of “መንደር”s are still scattered across a vast area of Metekel, west of Gojam.
Below are some of the images that surprised me, to see this level of urban detail that was built at least 40 years ago almost in the middle of nowhere.
Here are the pictures of Pawe and Beles, and please let me know if you happen to be from there or have some interesting stories about old towns. Also don’t hesitate to share your insights, correct me if I misrepresent anything.
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References
very interesting, thank you for bringing the issue to attention. what you heard and saw is true. I was among the first high school teacher there. there are a lot of things to tell, missed from the 4min video. Indeed, Pawe is a modern city with intention of modern agriculture, city and industrialization. But TPLF destroyed because of the negotiation it had with Egypt and Sudan. There are still people who can witness what happened. Later the distraction is intensified because of the ethnic conflict
Just to top up on your article, my father was one of builders of the city of Pawe, as an employee of a subcontractor of Tana Beles from Salini.
He was the first person to set out the first structure.
He has information about Pawe from inception till destruction. I can let you know about the information phase by phase I'm glad to find your article.