Blood Diamonds in Africa

From the 17th century until the 19th century, almost twelve million Africans were brought to the New World against their will to perform back-breaking labour under terrible conditions. The rationalizations and defences given for slavery and the slave trade were absurd and self-serving. Slavery was a truly barbaric, and those who think that they can control what another group of people eat, where they sleep, whether they are to live or die, or even whether they are to be bought or sold, are acting on a totally inhumane level.

All of us would find this topic in a way of inspirational because no matter what may be taking place, there can be an instant where the painful story that's taking place would be told and because of this story being told, changes will be made. For instance, Campbell speaks of Ismail Dalramy who lost his hands in 1996 by way of an ax. Amputation was one of many brutal tactics, as well as torture, mass rapes and looting done by the Revolutionary United Front or the (RUF). This is only just a little taste of what the African had to undergo because of the sick diamond trade. But, even so this helped bring light to what was wrong and helped more right to come out of. This book continued shedding light on the overworked but underpaid Africans in the mines. A tourist once mentioned, "The pit looked more like a slave colony". "On all sides, rib-skinny men stripped to their shorts were covered in mud and slime, the inevitable results of their jobs digging for diamonds". "Even though it was barely 10 a.m., they all looked exhausted”. This is needless to say extremely sad because there were Africans that were worked like crazy but barely getting paid, rest, or rewards. Instead there is nothing but turmoil agony and pain.

For more than three and a half centuries, the forcible bondage of at least twelve million men, women, and children from their African homelands to the Americas forever changed the face and character of the western hemisphere. The slave trade was brutal and horrific, and the enslavement of Africans was cruel, exploitative, and dehumanizing. The trade represented one of the longest and most sustained assaults on the life, integrity, and dignity of human beings in world history.

The changes in African life during the slave trade era form an important element in the economic and technological development of Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade had a negative effect on both the economy and technology, it is important to understand that slavery was not a new concept to Africa. In fact, internal slavery existed in Africa for many years. Slaves included war captives, the kidnapped, adulterers, and other criminals and outcasts. However, the number of persons held in slavery in Africa, was very small, since no economic or social system had developed for exploiting them (Manning 97). The new system-Atlantic slave trade-became quite different from the early African slavery. The

African people could no longer live how they wanted, they had to follow the rules and laws of the Europeans. The natives couldn’t work were the wanted, say what they wanted, or practice their own religion. They were told what to do, how to do it, and how much money they would make at work. The resolution of the All-African People’s Conference condemns imperialism and colonialism because of this statement, “…fundamental human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom of worship, freedom to live a full and abundant life . . . are denied to Africans through the activities of Imperialists”.

Long before Europeans arrived in Africa, slavery existed. In Africa, the slaves were treated as servants, humans, though lower class. European explorers would travel throughout the world looking for resources to trade, and Africa was such a place. Europe traded weapons in exchange for African slaves—kidnapped people that would eventually serve as laborers for European plantation owners and miners. Slavery’s negative physical and mental effects have impacted everyone around the world greatly, but the way slavery has changed society is the one with the greatest effect.

This essay supports the statement “The price of diamonds is too high”. Diamonds have always been presumed to be rare. They have been present in history as a symbol of wealth and luxury as they were so difficult to find. Nowadays diamonds are mined and are found all over the world but they are sold through a cartel. (Epstein 1982) A cartel limits the supply of a product in order to keep prices high and to limit competition. (South African Pocket Oxford Dictionary: 2002) This raises the question of whether diamonds are actually worth their price. This essay focuses on the origins and the basic theory behind the diamond cartel; the early operation of the cartel; De Beers’ strong market campaign; determining De Beers’ current

From the first slaves came resistance and rebellion in hopes of gaining freedom or simply to make the life of their owners miserable. The African people first began to rebel in their homeland. A number of attempts were made in Africa to either stop the trade or cut it down significantly.’ More attempts were made with the passing or laws preventing slave traders from trading in their village keeping that village safe. Many villages would fight against traders to keep trading from happening but they soon realized that the best way to keep the traders out was to put into effect long-term approaches.

Contrary to common knowledge, slavery still exists in many countries and is a widely accepted practice. If many people in first world countries knew about the savagery these people are subjected to, they would be horrified- but many don’t. This situation is very similar to that of the Congo ‘scandal’ that took place in the late 1800’s. Few people knew that this seemingly innocent exploration of the Congo was killing millions of people, and somehow, few people even recognize it now. Leopold and the other associated Europeans involved in the procuration of the Congo were able to do so because of their manipulation of the media and the powerful people of the time, the materialistic nature of Europeans and the extents

In one online article, the author quotes a man that was a part of the mining in Congo, and shows how the trade of conflict minerals across the world is funding a war. He says that more

Slavery, the practice of selling humans as property, has been a global issue for thousands of years (History of Slavery, 2015). It has incited torment and suffering to numerous individuals far and wide throughout time and has prompted many revolts such as the Third Servile war (Andrews, 2013). Nearly every country in the world has at one point in time sold or enslaved people. The United Nations has proscribed such actions and, in addition, the Catholic Church which proclaimed that “forced slavery was an infamy that dishonoured the Creator and was a poison in society” (Anon, 2015). And yet, slavery is still practised today (Fisher, 2013).

Slavery was abolished in the year of 1865; however, the maltreatment of African-Americans has not. Similarly, the triangular slave trade mentioned in Hartman’s book is no longer existent, but inhumane conditions still exist amongst the African community. These conditions are recurring motifs that hip-hop artist try to bring to mainstream audiences. The blood diamond industry began in the 1990s with the rebel group, Revolutionary United Front (RUF), led by Foday Sankoh, who had claimed they would improve the destitute conditions of the Africans and take better care of them than the African government. However, they later went against these promises and “seized control of diamond-producing regions in the east and south of Sierra Leone” (Fofana,

“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong” -Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln said these words almost 200 years ago, but the world still hasn’t realized the horrors of slavery. Slavery has been a problem in the world for hundreds of years, but despite efforts to end it, it still carries on to this day. It is especially prevalent in Africa and Asia, with millions of slaves working in inhumane conditions. For example, in Sudan, northern Arab people are attacking the native southern tribes and abducting people, even children, to go work for them in the north. The Sudanese government isn’t adequately protecting these tribes and even denies that the enslavement is occuring, so there are no signs of its resolution. People are wrongfully forced to work as slaves in Sudan as a result of the need for labor and religious conflicts, but the public isn’t supporting them enough so that slavery can be stopped.

The Congolese who mine these materials do not even know what they are extracting, and have no use for them in their daily lives. In spite of the fact that the Congo is blessed with a wealth of common assets, including diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, tin and tantalum, this valuable focal point is not utilized to expand on the nations riches as a result of the little advancement that has happened since

This essay will attempt to describe the modalities and consequences of the abolition of the slave trade in early nineteenth century West Africa. We now live in a world where slavery is considered not to be morale since it was abolished however cases of slavery still exist today but are hidden from the public eye so well that no one even knows the exist. Forcing someone to perform various duties like cleaning without any form of payment against their will is considered to be a form of slavery and anyone found to be having slaves or holding anyone against their will these days is punished and possibly sentenced to jail for a very long period of time. We are in the 21st century and slavery is something that is not accepted by