Sierra Leone's Sacrifice Diamonds

reality of the most brutal 20th century civil war in Sierra Leone. Mariatu tells a very

III.The organization that Colonel Coetzee operates involves the use of military force and monies through European agencies that help crate civil conflict in order to exploit the natural resources of the Sierra Leone. His goal is to provide cheap diamonds found by stakeholders, like Solomon, that wish to use the blood diamond to free his family and to stop the exploitation of his peoples. Danny Archer’s means to an end is to be able to find these diamonds to make the Colonel massive profits off of them. These “blood diamonds” are the result of creating wars that destroy African communities, so that Europeans can live in luxury. Is it Danny that must find these diamonds and find ways to smuggle them out of the region during military conflict, artificially created by men like Colonel Coetzee. Maddy is involved with the American media, as she is trying to find a

The controversial artist Kanye West has always attempted to make known what he thinks, no matter if he has to be disrespectful or graphic in his illustrations of said topic. So it wasn't a real surprise when he chose to focus his energy into reveling to the American public horrors happening that had a direct connection with the beloved diamond stone. West's 2005 music video “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” shows the corrupted underground diamond trade in the African country, Sierra Leone. From this groundbreaking video, West showed the devastated lives those who worked on the mining rivers live. However upon further investigation into the issue of diamond workers in Sierra Leone there emerged the true source of the situation, a violent

Considering the U.N.’s response to the war in Sierra Leone, it has a long way to go in its responsibility to ensure “legitimate governance under international law.” But U.N. efforts alone won’t stop the senseless killing in Sierra Leone over illicit diamonds. Kayne West’s song and video about “blood diamonds” makes us take an honest look at ourselves and ask: Is my fascination with diamonds contributing to the violence in Sierra

Sierra Leone has been involved in a humungous amount of absurd human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. This detailed paper on the book, A Long Way Gone, set in Sierra Leone, will create interest by summarizing the memoir through descriptive examples and text on symbolism and imagery. The author of this memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is Ishmael Beah, it's difficult to believe that this is a true and harsh story. You will be learning about Ishmael's resilience and the horrible struggles he faced as a child soldier, while somehow continuing to have hope. Ishmael Beah, 12 at the beginning of this memoir, unexpectedly gets recruited into a time consuming war over blood diamonds, against the rebels as a young child. Ishmael is at a loss, since with his own eyes he viewed not only his loving family, but his whole village as it was horrifically torn down by the dangerous rebels. Ishmael is not physically lonely during the book, but he is emotionally

The change in Sierra Leone culture is one of the first consequences of war seen in the story. Throughout the civil war the rebels (RUF) recruited or forced many children to become soldiers. In order to get these children they would raid villages and then draft the strongest ones. They would then tell the children that they would not need their families

¹A cilvic war of corruption have turned apart the relationships of Sierra Leone and the trust among its people, its travesty esstitally have destroy once peaceful community. Prior to the cilvic war, the people of Sierra Leoner have shared an intimate relationship with each other, they were a tight communities, until the war took away their lives, forcefully turning the family against each other.

Each individual is either directly or indirectly involved in the production of conflict minerals. For those directly involved in the production of conflict minerals, this includes enslaved children and the author of A Long Way Gone. As previously stated in the Child Soldiers PowerPoint, the conflict heightened in Sierra Leone on the account of these minerals (Dolhinow). The author of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, survived the conflict and experienced the uneasiness of a soldier. Additionally, Baindu described her experience stating that the rebels “forced” the children “to work in diamond pits (George, 2009).” These narratives directly relate to the issue of conflict minerals and child soldiers. Citizens of several countries, including the

Whilst leading to civilians fleeing Sudan and Sierra Leone to start new lives. The histories behind both wars are quite similar as both were solely motivated by natural resources and power imbalance. As The Revolutionary United Front had established in 1991 as rebel army that shared one goal, which was to overthrow Sierra Leone's government. Often referred to as the “Blood Diamond” era in certain African countries. Although diamonds and natural resources were a significant motivating factor, there were other causes of the Sierra Leone Civil War. Such as the pre-war frustrations and injustices that had transpired for decades. More than twenty years of poor governance, poverty and corruption created a setting for the RUF causing a rebellion, as civilians desired for change in Sierra Leone. Corruption and mismanagement led to the downfall of the country leading to an increase of recruits for the RUF. For Sierra Leoneans who did not have access to cultivating land, joining the rebel cause was an opportunity to seize property with deadly force. After leaving over 50 000 casualties and 2.6 million citizens displaced from Sierra Leone. The war came to an end in 2002 concluding in a loss for the

Have they ever posed the question; where is all of this coming from? It begins in the Republic of Congo, where the mineral coltan is quarried. Coltan, used commonly in smart phones and computers, is in high demand, demand so high, it can lead to the death of hundreds of citizens that are being forced to mine it. As the CBC news article “Coltan; A New Blood Mineral” apprises its reader, numerous more community’s lives will be permanently altered by the mining of coltan. “Potential mines are also being explored in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greenland, Mozambique, the United States, Finland, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Colombia.” (CBC) it is claimed. This can only mean countless more residents may be forced out of their homes, or to work in atrocious, inhumane conditions mining for the North American obsession. Though Sylvie, from Blue Gold, is a fictional character, the conflicts that she faces on an unvarying basis are a reality for innumerable African people at any given moment. However, with the nickname ‘blood mineral’, it is insinuated that coltan is the culprit, though this is not the case. As Sylvie bluntly puts it, “‘Coltan is just a rock. [...] It’s the fighters who hurt people” (Stewart 163), something the people in the Congo may forget. It is the simple truth that coltan mining is inevitable. The

The way the youngsters were handled by police was another reason to turn to gang participation. Members of the Diamonds were steadily tormented by the police because they appear like gang members or they are friends with gang members. All Latino people were targets of a belittling process of police action. In one instance, Freddie, he was pulled over by police when police started harassing and messing with him. The police thought he was a gangbanger even though Freddie told him he was not (Padilla 1996, 85). Police would even take their money. Tony recalls, “I don’t know how much money I’ve lost to police officers.” In other words, because these members were Puerto Rican, police assumes they are gangbangers (Padilla 1996, 87). Members of the Diamonds turned to gang participation because they believe if police is going to assume they are gangbangers, then they might as well be one. In turn, members of the Diamonds want to protect themselves by turning due to police officers treating them the way they do; they are out to get these youngsters. By turning, this is their defense against police brutality (Padilla 1996, 89).

The government continued to be extremely corrupt, there were still ethnic tensions, and Liberia, the neighboring country, was in its own civil war spreading violence into Sierra Leone. Along with that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was formed. This group overran the diamond mines of Sierra Leone and caused enough trouble for the military to have to get involved launching Sierra Leone’s civil war on March 23, 1991. For further reading into causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone click this link. The civil war lasted much longer for one reason being the vast amounts of diamonds. To the right you can see an image of the illegal diamond mining in Sierra Leone. The RUF funded their rebellious cause selling the diamonds, and since they are sold to fund war they are known as blood diamonds. In order to end the civil war Britain once again had to step into Sierra Leone and send its own military to stop the brutal civil war finally ending the 11 year war on January 18, 2002. (Sierra Leone, Royal African Society). If you would like to view more on Sierra Leone’s civil war the following links are to videos documenting the events of the war: link (long video est.1 hr 30 min), link (short video est. 14

Samuel Momodu attended both Nashville State Community College for his Associate of Arts Degree in History, as well as Tennessee State University for his Bachelor of Arts Degree in History. Momodu now is a historian working for blackpast.org which is an independent, non-profit organization. He studies African History around the world. Momodu wrote this article in 2007 to inform those who are reading A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, or anyone who is curious about the civil war that occured in Sierra Leone. When writing his article, Momodu’s goal was to educate people about what the actual causes of the Sierra Leone Civil War were, as well as

Much of what I discovered in watching this film has helped me see things in a different light. Not just diamonds but every other product imaginable could’ve commenced the same chaos the diamonds caused in Africa. This commotion may not only happen in Africa but also in any other country. Innocent people like Solomon, who just wanted to live their life in a quiet environment, are dragged into the turmoil constructed by the greedy individuals who only see money and power as the most important things in this world. The fact that the rebels cut off the citizens’ arms so that they won’t be able to vote was very disturbing. They recognize the people’s power that’s why they had to prevent the citizens to vote, so that they could stay in power. The citizens have

Educate – I had some understanding but seeing it portrayed was more of an eye opener. The violence and living conditions really makes people realize what they are taking for granted