The night-walkers of Uganda

Hollywood caught in gem warfare
Jeevan Vasagar on a DiCaprio film that threatens to take the shine off Africa’s diamond trade
Blood Diamond, a new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will open in cinemas in the USA in December. In the 
film DiCaprio plays the part of a South African mercenary, a professional soldier who is paid to fight in
different wars around the world. The film is set in Sierra Leone, during the civil war there in the early 1990s, 
a war in which 75,000 people died. DiCaprio’s character is trying to find a rare pink diamond. The diamond 
is in a dangerous part of the country where rebel soldiers are in control. 
A lot of the money used to buy arms during the civil war in Sierra Leone came from smuggling so-called 
‘conflict diamonds’, diamonds that are bought and sold in countries which are involved in wars. Now the 
diamond industry is worried that a film about the trade in African ‘conflict diamonds’ will have a negative 
effect on its image. De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, is planning to spend $15m on publicity, 
before the film opens in December. 
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In real life DiCaprio has become a symbol for people who believe that the diamond industry is destroying 
lives. A group of Kalahari Bushmen placed an advertisement in the Hollywood magazine Variety, attacking 
the diamond business. The Bushmen, who say they have lost their land in Botswana because of diamond 
mining, asked DiCaprio for his support. In an open letter to the star they said: “After they found diamonds on 
our land we lost our homes . . . We hope you will use your film to let people know that we too are victims of 
diamonds and we just want to go home.” 
Some people in the diamond industry say that the Hollywood film-makers are not telling the truth about 
African diamonds. The industry has started a website to fight negative publicity from the film. The website 
(diamondfacts.org) talks about the benefits the industry has brought to its workers. Nelson Mandela appears 
on the website and describes the diamond industry as “very important” to southern Africa’s economy. 
In Botswana 25% of jobs are directly or indirectly linked to diamonds, while in Namibia the diamond trade 
is the second-biggest employer after the government. The Bushmen are not the only African voices in the 
debate. Patrick Mazimhaka, a Rwandan diplomat, says “a lot of good can be done with money earned from 
natural resources. With good management and careful leadership . . . natural resources have been a great 
force for good in Africa.” 
The diamond industry is trying to protect a market worth $2.3bn in Britain last year. Jewellers make 20% of 
their sales at Christmas, when the film opens in the US. The industry says that less than 1% of all diamonds 
sold are conflict diamonds, compared with 4% in the late 1990s, the period in which the film is set. The 
Kimberley Process, a scheme that requires governments to control diamonds, has almost stopped the trade 
in conflict diamonds, the industry says. 
“This system is not perfect, but we are trying very hard to make it perfect,” a spokesman said. “We don’t 
want any conflict diamond on the market.” But not everyone agrees that the problem is over. Several African 
civil wars have ended but the main source of conflict diamonds is Ivory Coast, where rebels control some 
diamond mines. Smugglers are taking diamonds from Ivory Coast into Mali and selling them to international 
dealers. Congo-Brazzaville is also a centre of diamond smuggling, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 
people are still fighting to control the diamond mines even though the civil war is over. One campaigner, Susie 
Sanders, said: “We need stronger internal controls to stop the smuggling of conflict diamonds into countries 
that are [in the] Kimberley Process and then exported. There is lots of smuggling. The control systems aren’t 
strong enough.” 
Jewellers in London said smugglers had offered them west African diamonds. One jeweller said: “We try to 
make sure they’re non-conflict diamonds. We don’t buy from Angola or anywhere where the money can be 
used to buy arms. “Sierra Leone is one of the countries we don’t touch. People from there come in and ask: 
‘Do you buy rough diamonds?’. We say: ‘Where are they from?’ - [they say] ‘Sierra Leone’, and we say ‘Get 
out’.” In fact, both Sierra Leone and Angola have peace agreements now and can trade in diamonds again 
but conflict diamonds from Ivory Coast are still illegal. 
Some people are worried that that the film will stop people buying all African diamonds. “Quite a few African 
countries have weak control systems,” says Sanders. “West Africa and the Congo, for example. We don’t 
want people to say ‘I’m not going to buy African diamonds’. We want to protect the legitimate diamond trade 
from Africa.”