Dangila has played a role in Ethiopian literature. As a young man, Haddis Alemayehu, who was to become the foremost Amharic fiction writer, served for two years as a customs clerk at Dangila in the early 1930s. When consul Cheesman left, the consulate building was turned into a primary school, and Haddis Alemayehu became its headmaster for a year. Another author is Abe Gubegna, who attended grades 1-8 at the Bitwedded Mengesha Jembere school in the 1950s.
