Sierra Leone: How I Funded My Studies by Digging for Sierra Leone Diamonds

May 3, 2017 | Umaru Fofana, BBC Africa
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In my teens, I worked as an artisanal miner, waist deep in water, sieving the gravel to find a diamond. Growing up in diamond-rich eastern Sierra Leone, it was the natural thing to do. Jobs were, and still are, few and far between, so the gemstones were a magnet. They persuaded many to drop out of school, but I worked as a miner mostly during school holidays and sometimes at weekends.