Pio Roda, Nino Joseph B.

4Pol1 IPE
Blood Diamond
The movie Blood Diamond,successfully illustrated the different situations in
Sierra Leone during the times when revolutionary armies and consistent political
conflicts were still prevalent within the African region. This paper aims to reflect about
the link between the movies plot and its connection to the different theories and concepts
in the field of International Political Economy. Concepts such as; the exportation of
capital from one country to another which can be seen in the movie through the London
base jewelry company which buys the conflict diamonds from being a smuggled good
in Liberia before finding its way to Europe, how this diamonds serves as a source of an
armed conflict since it was being used in purchasing armaments that will support the
RUF revolutionary movement, and lastly, how Sierra Leone through the Kimberely
agreement find its way to peace and development by converting the use of the said
conflict diamonds from a greed base approach to resourceful form of wealth.
The movie Blood Diamond depicted the real situations in Siera Leone during the
years of social upheaval within the country because of revolutionary movements against
the established government. But before explaining further how this diamonds lead to
Sierra Leons declining political and economic state we must recognize the relevance of
this diamonds during the pre-revolutionary period. Diamond industry serves as the
backbone industry of Sierra Leones economy during the early period before the civil war
erupted. The whole country was part of the British Colonial Empire. The colonial
authority granted the De Beers Sierra Leone Selection Trust (SLST), monopoly over the
production of rough diamonds for ninety years, during this period of time vast changes in
infrastractures happened in Sierra Leone because of the revenue being collected from the
industry thats why for a short period of time they were able to convert the country, from
being a resource poor nation to resource rich nation. It is however after the influx of the
Diamond Rush massive corruption and political decline happened within the whole
country smuggling took place which leads to the ending of SLSTs monopoly over the
diamond production (Kawamoto,2012).
In one particular scene in the movie Danny Archer (played by Leonardo Di
Carpio), a former mercenary which became a diamond smuggler narrated to a journalist
how conflict diamonds find its way to big companies in Europe through smuggling. It has
been shown in the movie that the diamonds coming from Sierra Leone were being
smuggled to Liberia wherein, legal papers will be processed in order for the diamonds to
be legally exported to big jewelry companies such as the Van Dee Kap jewelry industry
as per used in the movie. This kind of set-up can be considered as one of the elements of
imperialism which is monopoly of goods and capital by using the exportation of capital in
purchasing valuable goods in low price this situation can be seen through the experience
of Sierra Leone, as stated above the Van Dee Kap company in the movie can be
compared to Sierra Leones longest diamond monopolistic company which is the Sierra
Leone Selection Trust (SLST), for 90 years the company dominated the diamond industry
in the country.
To push for their economic agendas big imperialist countries whose is to gather
wealth by expanding their colonial empires the concept of Scramble for Africa
emerged this concept depicts the race among European countries to divide the African
Continent for themselves, the subjugation the African region to colonial powers
bringforth vast wealth to their imperial masters since diamond and gold can be found in
Africa and slavery is prevalent within the region many European countries profited in this
kind of approach(OBrien & Williams, 2013). The connection of this concept in the
movie Blood Diamond and to the real experience of Sierra Leone and different other
African nations is that it gives rise to a revolutionary concept for the side of the local
Africans since, theyre being under the shackles of slavery and oppression as big
countries plunder their wealth the notion of revolutionizing their society may arise
because it will give them the idea that they should be the one who must enjoy their
wealth and the fruits of their labor rather than those imperialist nations who colonized
them.
In the movie Sierra Leones revolutionary group Revolutionary United Front
plundered, murdered, rape the people living in the outskirts of the country and if they find
able bodied men they will convert them into field workers looking for conflict
diamonds that will be use in exchange of armaments or will be smuggled to Liberia to
fund their revolt. The kind of armed movements made by the RUF does not really aim to
free the people from imperialism rather they just seek to overthrow the government by
reeking havoc to the society and control the diamond industry of the country for their
own profit (Kawamoto,2012). Though, in the movie the real revolution happened when
the fictional character Solomon Gaundy succeeded in bringing the diamond in London
and sell it to the Van Dee Kap group with its representative not mindful about the
knowledge that their transaction were being watched by a journalist which later on
exposed the chain of process where these rough diamonds really came from.
While in reality at the end of the civil war and societal upheavals within Sierra
Leone the main cataclysmic revolution that took place and improved the stature of the
nation happened during the formulation of the Diamond Area Community Development
Fund (DACDF), and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The DACDF program
aims to return the revenues being collected from the diamond industry to the
communities and people concern in producing diamonds while on the other hand the
Kimberley Process Scheme, converted rough diamonds into a conflict free goods ready
for legal exportation unlike before wherein, those people looking for diamonds were
being force to perform their task coercively as slaves (Kawamoto,2012). Through this
scheme diamond workers now have a fair share of the things that theyre producing and
the process of trade is now legal in order to avoid smuggling.
The importance of this schemes is that it legalized and put the diamond industry
in Sierra Leone into a more systematized and corruption free model which promotes and
improve the countries revenue and the social structure of the people living across the
nation. Unlike, in the movie wherein, those manufactured goods being presented by
jewelry companies to the consumers came from the sweat and blood of those workers
being force to look for rough diamonds that will be smuggled and later on be bought by
monopolistic companies with low price without the consumers knowing the expense of
human blood and sweat wasted just to produce the diamonds that theyre purchasing.
The experience of Sierra Leone can be considered as the experience of different
other African nations wherein, most of their wealth such as, gold,diamond, and oil were
being enjoyed by the colonial imperialist nations whose aim is to gain vast wealth as they
make the living condition of their colonies damnable social changes and market systems
must be change in order to realize the welfare of every individual within the region.
In order for Africa to get away with this kind of circumstances their respective
governments across the entire continent must practice good governance that will enable
them to rely on themselves and create strong nation states. Because according to Roy
Maconachie (2008), African countries has the tendency to utilize their wealth on a greed
based approach wherein despite of their vast significant wealth they reap limited rewards
because of corruption, political instability, and violent conflicts. Many experts considered
this situation in Africa as a resource curse since they can not utilize their wealth in order
for their country to improve. That is why good governance must be promoted within the
African region. The practice of accountability, transparency, and promotion of public
welfare and pursuance of economic growth that will lead to sustainable development
must be practiced in every African nation-state.
The role of many NGOs has also become significant in fighting the oppression
brought by the civil war and revolution in Sierra Leone, various NGOs launched
campaigns that will further draw wider public attention to the real situations happening in
Sierra Leone about the production of diamond and its link to the civil war. Academic
experts also considered the release of the Hollywood film Blood Diamond in galvanizing
public attention which draws peoples attention to the production of conflict diamonds
(Maconachie, 2008). The movie gave rise to different sentiments and concern both
domestically in Sierra Leone, and within the international arena that this issue must be
settled immediately. It gives rise to the notion of progressive realization around the world
that even during this era of rapid globalization many countries were still being left behind
in terms of economic and social development which makes them unable to contend with
the developed nations.
 Works Cited
Maconachie, R. (2008). Diamond mining, Governance Initiatives and Post-Conflict
Development in Sierra Leone. Brooks World Poverty Institute. University of
Manchester.
Kawamoto, K. (2012). Diamonds in war, Diamonds for Peace: Diamond Sector
Management and Kimberlite mining Sierra Leone. Environmental Institute and
United Nations EnvironemntProgramme.
OBrien, R. & Williams, M. (2013). Global Political Economy: Evolution and Dynamics.
Palgrave Macmillan