The City Lights Reporter - Behind the Bling-Bling

Posted Nov. 28, 2001 -- As the Christmas season draws near, and we begin thinking about certain gifts made from diamonds, we'd do well to keep in mind a scene from a recent House of Representatives Africa Subcommittee.

A group of children from Sierra Leone had showed up to show just how bloody the diamond business has become. Each child, ages 7, 8 and 9, was missing a limb -- an arm, leg or hand -- which had been hacked off with machetes.

And there were millions more where they came from. A book of photographs shown to subcommittee members included a 3-year-old girl staring blankly into space, her hand missing; a teenage girl, her eyes cast downward and away from her missing arm, which had been hacked off below the elbow; and a boy on crutches, missing a foot.

The unspeakable brutality had been committed in an effort to drive people off of land that contains diamonds -- a gem that, in the vernacular of America's consumer-driven culture, is simply to die for.

As African Americans become more affluent, one way of showcasing -- or is it showing off? -- has been to purchase diamonds. Go to any Black church on Sunday or any social function and you'll see some of the biggest rocks around. At the U.S. Open tennis finals, superstar sisters Venus and Serena Williams had such gorgeous stones dangling from their ears and necks that it was hard to keep your eye on the ball.

But for all of the symbolism of having arrived that comes with owning a diamond, the stones are really nothing but an illusion. More than a century ago, De Beers, which controls about 70 percent of the global diamond supply, established a brilliant distribution formula for the otherwise plentiful rock: The amount of diamonds placed on the market in a given year would equal the number of wedding engagements reported during that year.

The rest would be hoarded to give the appearance of rarity. A 1990 study of diamonds used on engagement rings found that a one-carat diamond, which cost less than $60 to mine, retailed at more than $552. Quite a mark-up.

In some African countries, Botswana, for instance, profits from diamonds are used to build roads and pay for badly needed AIDS medicines. But in other places, such as Sierra Leone, the stones are used to finance rebel groups who have no qualms about hacking babies to death just to scare people off of diamond-rich lands.

"The war is not tribal, and it is not religious," said Muctar Jalloh, 27, a student from Sierra Leone who

accompanied the mutilated children to Washington. "It is simply a war over control of diamonds. Little pieces of rock that people around the world like to wear on their fingers and hang from their ears. As you can see, because of these rocks I no longer have an ear or five of my fingers."

As the atrocities continue, diamond dealers worldwide have launched an advertising offense aimed at burnishing the image of its product. Part of that offense includes placing more African Americans in diamond advertising, with the very appealing pitch that "you deserve it!" Customers in the United States account for 65 percent of the $7 billion annual diamond business. De Beers claims that only 4 percent of diamonds originate in the embattled regions of Africa. However, a United Nations panel and a coalition of human rights groups called Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds put the figure at closer to 20 percent.

Several religious groups have begun to mobilize congregations behind a bill sponsored by Reps. Tony

Hall (D-Ohio) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) that would require diamonds to come with proof of origin. Strikingly absent from the effort is any significant number of African American congregations.

This must change. African Americans need not be complicit in the destruction of Africa and her

peoples. Indeed, by better understanding the issues, pooling resources and being disciplined in the way we shop, African Americans could exert tremendous influence on this issue.

Say, instead of just going out and buying any old diamond -- not knowing where it came from -- black churches could arrange mass purchases of diamonds with a stipulation that they be clean and that the profits be put to good use. We can't afford to keep our heads in the sand. After all, what kind of person can chop off a toddler's hand to get a diamond? Just as bad, what kind of people wear diamonds that drip with blood?

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Behind The Bling-Bling:

Are Diamonds Worth It?

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This web site contains "Trademarks" and "Copyrighted" material licensed to other entities and cannot be reproduced, altered, or used in any form without prior written permission. Please read our Terms Of Use for compliance information.