Zay: Islanders in a Floating Lake: Ethiopia's Federalism Reconsidered

Zay inhabiting the five islands of lake Zway have passed through different experiences. They maintained, through the ages both hostile and friendly interactions with the societies neighbouring to them. Almost half a millennium have been spent since they have come across with the Oromo which now have reached its climax. Specially the last two decades saw important developments in their interactions since the country adopted a new state structure- ethnic federalism. Do Ethiopia's federalism is meeting the expectations it has promised? A reconsideration have been attempted in this work taking the contemporary Zay-Oromo interactions.