Voices from the Mine: Artisanal Diamonds and Resource Governance in Sierra Leone [Video]
Publisher: University of Bath
Author(s): Roy Maconachie and Simon Wharf
Date: 2018
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance, Livelihoods
Countries: Sierra Leone
A new feature film from Roy Maconachie and Simon Wharf explores the pathway of a diamond from mine to market, and asks the question, who really benefits?
Diamonds are big business in Sierra Leone. Dispersed over terrain spanning some 8,000 square miles (almost a quarter of the entire country), an abundance of the precious – and extremely valuable – stones have made the diamond sector one of the country’s most lucrative foreign currency generators. In the past, annual production has netted up to US$250 million, making the small West African country diamond rich bar none.
Yet, the country’s wealth in natural resources – gold, iron ore, bauxite and rutile are also found extensively within its borders – has not correlated into better living conditions for its people. In fact, the opposite has been true. By UNDP standards, 60% of the country live under the poverty line, making it one of the world’s poorest nations. Ravaged for years by a brutal civil war – fuelled by an illicit trade in diamonds - and battered more recently by Ebola, economic development has flatlined through a combination of mismanagement and misfortune.