Apsara Gurung

Following the infamous quote by Kanye West for his music video, ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone’, he pleads the viewers to buy conflict free diamonds. Highlighting the grief-stricken lives of the diamond miners in Africa, enslaved by the rebel militants. The $81-billion-dollar industry depends on these individuals that are forced to work “from sunrise to sunset under the watchful eyes of soldiers” as quoted in the music video. They have no freedom nor rights; this is the dirty truth behind the world’s most coveted gem.

 

While the jewel encapsulates the essence of eternal love and happiness, there is an underlying, sinister practice embedded behind harvesting of the stone. 65% of the mines are situated in Africa – most of them run by rebel militant groups in war-zones. Just two decades ago 7 African countries endured civil wars due to these gems.

 

Since then, most of those countries have ended the wars such as Ivory Coast, Central African Republic and Zimbabwe. However, diamonds sourced from human rights exploitation ceases to exist in countries such as Angola and Sierra Leone even after ending of the civil war. In addition, due to corruption and poor border controls, Cameroon is still financing the ongoing conflict of three years by trafficking diamonds from Central African Republic to this very day. Even worse, the daily wages of the workers are less than a dollar.

 

A staggering rate of 1 out of 4 diamonds in the market is a conflict stone. More alarmingly, even today it is almost impossible to differentiate an ethical diamond from a conflict diamond. A court case involving supermodel Naomi Campbell was made viral in 2012 where she was given “small, dirty looking stones” allegedly by Charles Taylor, a former Liberian politician. These stones were conflict diamonds and were used as evidence against Taylor for the funding of weaponry for Liberia in court.

 

To solve this problem, in 2003, the diamond industry came up with the ‘Kimberley Process’ which was used to prevent ‘conflict diamonds’ from entering the mainstream diamond market. A diamond approved by the Kimberley Process meant that it was sourced ethically-it was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize the same year it was launched. However, there were various loopholes in the system. This led to the withdrawal of the non-profit group ‘Global Witness’ from the partnership in 2011 as they did not want to be associated with the Kimberley Process due to its inability to fulfil its purpose. The Kimberly Process only considered diamonds fuelled by the rebel militant groups as ‘conflict diamonds’, meaning other unethical diamonds supplied utilising child labour, brutality, sexual violence and bloodshed could obtain the Kimberley Stamp and are still being sold today to unaware consumers.

 

The trend of having a diamond on engagement rings started with the genius marketing plan by De Beers in 1938. With the prices for diamond on decline since 1919, consumers preferred simple metal rings rather than gems. To boost the gems popularity, the agency got infamous Hollywood stars to wear diamonds (such as Marilyn Monroe in her song ‘Diamonds are s Girl’s Best Friend’ along with Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’). This turned out to be a huge success and resulted in diamond sales increasing by over 50% and after 20 years, 80% of the brides owned their own rock. The popularity is booming till this very day as the majority of the population turn to diamonds to feature on their ring. As stated by journalist Edward Jay Epstein in ‘Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?’ nearing the end of 1950, the new generation considered a diamond ring “a necessity” at engagements. “The message had been so successfully impressed on the minds of this generation that those who could not afford to buy a diamond at the time of their marriage would “defer the purchase” rather than forgo it.”

 

On average, an individual spends £573 on an engagement ring but it can easily reach the depths of millions more to suit the tastes of rich and famous. Some of them include Kim Kardashian ($8 million), Jennifer Lopez ($4.1 million) and Elizabeth Taylor ($8.8 million).

 

Moreover, due to the boom in the luxury industry in 2003, companies such as Tiffany & Co. underwent an industry shift. Instead of getting their diamonds pre-cut and pre-polished from middlemen, the company has started to teach inexperienced workers in Africa how to transform raw diamonds into stones for Tiffany’s signature engagement rings. The reason for this is to cut back on the costs and prevent competing for the diamonds with other companies.

This increased the value of diamond retail sales which was significantly higher than the value of the diamond content as shown on the graph above.

 

Throughout the years, the media has increasingly put emphasis on the immoral actions supporting the diamond trade as depicted in the 2006 movie, ‘Blood Diamond’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This has made the mass population more aware of the injustice and exploitation of human rights, triggering the search for alternatives or ethically sourced diamonds.

 

In order to ensure that the diamond is ethically sourced, it is vital to ask the jeweller where the stone was mined. If they can’t provide you with that information, chances are that the diamond is not obtained ethically. Avoid those that are from Zimbabwe and Angola and look out for ones from Canada, Namibia and Botswana.

 

Though they may be more expensive, they are reputable and have a clear record of implementing strong labour and environmental standards. Also, try and buy jewellery from ethical companies such as Hume Atelier, Leber Jeweller and Brilliant Earth. These companies source their own diamonds and have tracking information that allows you to find out about your diamond source. Recycle rings; instead of buying a new one, you can easily take your old ring to a jewellers and customise it.

 

This way we can reduce the consumption of conflict diamonds and help with the prevention of unethical treatment of the workers in the mines. As representatives of the future generation, it is up to us to start making a difference to eradicate this inhumane practice altogether.