Whiteway identifies as the location of the Battle of Baçente, where Cristóvão da Gama in 1542 enjoyed his first victory over his Moslem foe.

The majority of the inhabitants said they practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 97.76% reporting that as their religion, while 2.22% of the population were Muslim.

[3] A sample enumeration performed by the CSA in 2001 interviewed 34,455 farmers in this woreda, who held an average of 0.67 hectares of land.

Of the 23,196 hectares of private land surveyed, 85.86% was in cultivation, 0.85% pasture, 8.32% fallow, 0.62% woodland, and 4.35% was devoted to other uses.

For the land under cultivation in this woreda, 72.68% was planted in cereals, 7.76% in pulses, and 0.48% in oilseeds; the amount in vegetables is missing.