Bonga is thought to be the oldest city in the general region of Welega Province. The first European recorded to have visited the capital of the former Kingdom of Kaffa was Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, who resided for 11 days in the marketplace reserved for Christian traders in 1843. The royal residence at Bonga was not as elegant as those in Gomma, Gera, and Limmu-Ennarea. Capuchin monks founded a mission there in 1845 and discovered some medieval churches which remained as evidence of the early infiltration of Christian influence before the invasion of the Oromo. When Paul Soleillet visited Bonga in the 1880s, he described its trade as primarily slaves, coffee, civet cat oil, coriander and ivory, the turnover amounting between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars a year. Following the conquest of Kaffa by the generals of Menelik II in 1897, Bonga was deserted; governor RasWolde Giyorgis made neighboring Anderaccha his capital. Bonga was occupied 13 December 1936 by the Italians under General Malta, who died there the next year on 30 May. He and his successor Colonel Corrado refounded Bonga as a local administrative and commercial center for the production of coffee, hides, wax, maize, tea, etc. By 1938, there were about 3,000 inhabitants in the town, of whom about 200 were Italians, and it was equipped with a post office, telegraph, hospital, pharmacy, and spacci. There were few remains of early constructions, but the new settlement was well built from brick and tufa, covered by clay tiles or corrugated iron. Generals Bortello and Tosti, commanders of the Italian forces south of the Didessa River acknowledged their weak position and along with 2,850 troops on 28 June 1941 surrendered to Lt. Col. McNab of the King's African Rifles. Telephone service reached Bonga between 1954 and 1967. Around 1970, there lived in Bonga one Idebe Godo who was the chief priest of a spirit possession cult. The high priesthood was hereditary to the family of the former high priests to the King of Kaffa.
Demographics
Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the CSA, this town has a total population of 20,858, of whom 10,736 are men and 10,122 women. The majority of the inhabitants practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 72.53% of the population reporting that belief. 11.17% were Muslim, 9.85% were Protestants, and 6.18% were Catholics. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 10,851 of whom 5,032 were men and 5,819 women. Bonga is also home to many Uduk refugees from South Sudan.
Sightseeing
In 2009, constructions for a National Coffee Museum started. Next to the National Coffee Museum lies the Kafa Biosphere Reserve Information Center where visitors can learn about flora and fauna of the region. Kafa Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2010. It is the birthplace of wild Arabica coffee and is very rich in biodiversity.
