Defunct ethnic federalism, ‘clamor for statehood’, violence and the remapping of southern Ethiopia

Contemporary, Ethiopia is razed with various civil resistance, street blocked and small scale conflicts, all in all chaos form every corners of the country. Some of the conflicts are due to the recent national political reform introduced by the current Ethiopian prime minister, as it is seen in the case of Somali and Oromiaregional States. Others are due to path-dependent questions for equitable economic benefit, the demand for state infrastructure and actual state somatic presence. While the remaining dozens of the latest questions in Ethiopia and the southern fringes in particular are related with ‘clamor’ for Woreda, Zone and Regional Statehood. Put together, from exploratory case study of the devolved Benc’-Maji Zone (BMZ), this article, identified Ethiopian federalism in general and its practice in the southern fringes as a typical example of defunct federalism. Besides, the article identified this defunct federalism partly causing unmanageable ‘ill-timed’ demand for statehood accompanied by various degrees of violence and the subsequent remapping of the SNNPR regional state of Ethiopia in general and Southwestern fringe of Ethiopia in particular. Thus, the article recommends policy makers to be critical in dealing with the remolding old and emerging new conflicts and strategically designed somatic state presence on the other, as far as, conflict transformation through state reform is concerned.