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From Old School to Hip Hop: Women, Diamonds, Blood, and Hip Hop

As Sierra Leone’s leader, Ernest Koroma – who began serving as president just one month ago begins governing, analysts are keeping an eye on how Koroma will tackle corruption, which is often cited as the reason the country’s massive diamond wealth has yet to benefit most of the country’s people. Diamond miners, who rarely see a cut and polished diamond, work long days for little to no pay and are sometimes simply offered sub-standard living in exchange for their work. They sift through pebbles and rocks, hoping to find jewels in the rubble which they turn over to mine owners, who pay them a tiny bonus. Mining companies do pay taxes – which the government in turn dumps back into the mining industry instead of into developing local communities. Continued dissatisfaction regarding the fact that most Sierra Leoneans are extraordinarily poor despite the wealth of resources like diamonds led to a bloody civil war in the 1990s. Crime expanded as state structures weakened – civilians were maimed and killed by government and rebel factions, and thousands of children were recruited into varying army forces. Although the war ended in 2002, corruption persists while the diamond and other resource industries continue extract wealth and leave the majority of Sierra Leoneans in deep poverty.

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