[11] Michael E. Brooks, Prester John: A Reexamination and Compendium of the Mythical Figure Who Helped Spark European Expansion (PhD diss., University of Toledo, 2009), 134.
[12] David Birmingham, Portugal and Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1999), 14.
[13] Ibid., 16.
[14] Innocent Pikirayi, The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline in Southern Zambezian States (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2001), 174.
[15] Terry H. Elkiss, The Quest for an African Eldorado: Sofala, Southern Zambezia, and the Portuguese, 1500–1865 (Waltham, MA: Crossroads Press, 1981), 72.
[16] Stefan Kanfer, The Last Empire: De Beers, Diamonds, and the World (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995), 34.
[17] Marian Robertson, Diamond Fever: South African Diamond History, 1866–9 from Primary Sources (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1974), 221.
[18] Matthew Hart, Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair (New York: Plume, 2002), 36.
[19] Gardner F. Williams, The Diamond Mines of South Africa: Some Account of Their Rise and Development (London: Macmillan, 1902), 196.
[20] Tom Zoellner, The Heartless Stone: A Journey through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire (New York: St. Martin’s, 2006), 122.
[21] Alan Cohen, “Mary Elizabeth Barber, Some Early South African Geologists, and the Discoveries of Diamonds,” Earth Sciences History 22, no. 2 (2003): 162.
[22] Phyllis Lewsen, ed., Selections from the Correspondence of J. X. Merriman, vol. 1, 1870–1890 (Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, 1960), 5.
[23] Rob Turrell, “The 1875 Black Flag Revolt on the Kimberley Diamond Mines,” Journal of Southern African Studies 7, no. 2 (1981): 200.
[24] Peter Kallaway, “Labour on the Kimberley Diamond Fields,” South African Labour Bulletin 1, no. 7 (1974): 54.
[25] Robert Vicat Turrell, Capital and Labour on the Kimberley Diamond Fields, 1871–1890 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 102.
[26]William H. Worger, South Africa’s City of Diamonds: Mine Workers and Monopoly Capitalism in Kimberley, 1867–1895 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 73.
[27] Judy Kimble, “Labour Migration in Basutoland c. 1870–1885,” in Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa: African Class Formation, Culture, and Consciousness, 1870–1930, ed. Shula Marks and Richard Rathbone (New York: Longman, 1982), 123.
[28] Williams, Diamond Mines, 188.
[29] Z. K. Matthews, Freedom for My People: The Autobiography of Z. K. Matthews: Southern Africa, 1901 to 1968 (London: R. Collings, 1981), 3.
[30] Williams, Diamond Mines, 325.
[31] Worger, South Africa’s City of Diamonds, 87.
[32] Turrell, “1875 Black Flag Revolt,” 195.
[33] Robertson, Diamond Fever, 149.
[34] Turrell, Capital and Labour, 29.
[35] Brian Roberts, The Diamond Magnates (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972), 121.
[36] Colin Newbury, The Diamond Ring: Business, Politics, and Precious Stones in South Africa, 1867–1947 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 59.
[37] Turrell, Capital and Labour, 204.
[38] Rob Turrell, “Kimberley: Labour and Compounds, 1871–1888,” in Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa: African Class Formation, Culture, and Consciousness, 1870–1930, ed. Shula Marks and Richard Rathbone (New York: Longman, 1982), 63.
[39] Turrell, Capital and Labour, 99.
[40] Matthews, Freedom for My People, 1–2, 9.
[41] Worger, South Africa’s City of Diamonds, 95.
[42] Tom Zoellner, The Heartless Stone: A Journey through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire (New York: St. Martin’s, 2006), 126.
[43] Gardner F. Williams, The Diamond Mines of South Africa: Some Account of Their Rise and Development (London: Macmillan, 1902), 322.
[44] William J. Morton, “The South African Diamond Fields, and a Journey to the Mines,” Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 9 (1877): 76.
[45] Phyllis Lewsen, ed., Selections from the Correspondence of J. X. Merriman, vol. 1, 1870–1890 (Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, 1960), 194.
[46] William Crookes, “The Romance of the Diamond,” North American Review 187, no. 628 (March 1908): 374.
[47] John M. Smalberger, “The Role of the Diamond-Mining Industry in the Development of the Pass-Law System in South Africa,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 9, no. 3 (1976): 422. The reference is to the January 25, 1872, edition of the Diamond Field.
[48] Williams, Diamond Mines, 402.
[49] Rob Turrell, “Kimberley: Labour and Compounds, 1871–1888,” in Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa: African Class Formation, Culture, and Consciousness, 1870–1930, ed. Shula Marks and Richard Rathbone (New York: Longman, 1982), 65.
[50]William H. Worger, South Africa’s City of Diamonds: Mine Workers and Monopoly Capitalism in Kimberley, 1867–1895 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 266.
[51] Rob Turrell, “Kimberley’s Model Compounds,” Journal of African History 25, no. 1 (1984): 64.
[52] Lewsen, Correspondence of J. X. Merriman, 203. Merriman wrote the letter on January 10, 1886.
[53] Crookes, Romance of the Diamond, 376.
[54] Turrell, “Kimberley’s Model Compounds,” 59.
[55] Colin Newbury, The Diamond Ring: Business, Politics, and Precious Stones in South Africa, 1867–1947 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 75.
[56]Z. K. Matthews, Freedom for My People: The Autobiography of Z. K. Matthews: Southern Africa, 1901 to 1968 (London: R. Collings, 1981), 7.
[57]Turrell, “Kimberley’s Model Compounds,” 73.
[58]Newbury, Diamond Ring, 125.
[59]The Diamond Empire (film), Janine Roberts, 1994.
[60] Newbury, Diamond Ring, 124.
[61] Ibid., 113.
[62] Lilian Charlotte Anne Knowles, The Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire (London: Routledge, 2005), 73.
[63] For all the trouble that the war caused De Beers, the siege was particularly hard on the African community of mine workers, who were forced to remain in Kimberley well after their contracts had concluded, leading to at least 1,500 deaths, primarily as a result of typhoid and dysentery outbreaks.
[64] For an account of how De Beers has been able to manipulate global diamond consumption trends, see Edward Jay Epstein, “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” Atlantic (February 1982): 371–82.
[65] Ian Smillie, Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption and War in the Global Diamond Trade (London: Anthem, 2010), 44.
[66] Debora L. Spar, “Markets: Continuity and Change in the International Diamond Market,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, no. 3 (Summer 2006): 202.
[67] The Government of Botswana, home to De Beers’s largest mines, owns the remaining 15 percent.
[68] Matthew Hart, Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair (New York: Plume, 2002), 37.
[69]The index translates the anthropometric relationships of height, weight, and thoracic perimeter into a single number. The Pignet index was invented in 1900 by Maurice-Joseph, a French army doctor, in order to help determine recruits’ fitness levels.
[70] Allan D. Cooper, “The Institutionalization of Contract Labour in Namibia,” Journal of Southern African Studies 25, no. 1 (March 1999): 124.
[71] Ibid., 133.
[72] Peter Greenhalgh, West African Diamonds, 1919–1983: An Economic History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985), 106.
[73] Ibid., 107.
[74] Ibid., 185.
[75] Gillian Cronje and Suzanne Cronje, The Workers of Namibia (London: International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1979), 55.
[76] Richard Derksen, “Forminiere in the Kasai, 1906–1939,” African Economic History, no. 12 (1983): 54.
[77] Greenhalgh, West African Diamonds, 182.
[78] Ibid., 183.
[79] Ibid., 128.
[80] Ibid.
[81] Ibi
d., 129.
[82] Keith Gottschalk, “South African Labour Policy in Namibia, 1915–1975,” South African Labour Bulletin 4, no. 1–2 (1978): 75.
[83] Cronje and Cronje, Workers of Namibia, 56.
[84] Ibid.
[85] I will examine the situation in Namibia more extensively in a later chapter.
[86]Former mine manager Gordon Brown is not the former British prime minister of the same name.
[87]Richard Derksen, “Forminière in the Kasai, 1906–1939,” African Economic History, no. 12 (1983): 53.
[88]Robert J. Gordon, Mines, Masters and Migrants: Life in a Namibian Compound (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1977), 86.
[89]Interview by the author, João Muacasso, August 11, 2005, Cafunfo, Angola.
[90]Interview by the author, Mawassa Mwaninga, November 22, 2005, Cafunfo, Angola.
[91]Interview by the author, Mateus Nanto, August 12, 2005, Cafunfo, Angola.
[92]Interview by the author, Costa Chicungo, May 13, 2005, Dundo, Angola.
[93]Interview by the author, Paulo Leão Vega and António Sulessa, May 17, 2005, Dundo, Angola.
[94]Bob Marley, “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry),” Natty Dread, 1975.
[95]Museum of Anthropology at the University of Coimbra (MAUC), Portugal, Diamang archive, folder 86D,2 8o, Diamang, Spamoi Relatório de Dezembro 1955 (January 12, 1956): 12.
[96]MAUC, folder 86B,6a 5o, letter from A. Mendes to the Rep. da Diamang, January 28, 1965, 1.
[97]MAUC, folder 86 13o, letter from E. S. Lane, Representante na Lunda, to Snr. Chefe de Fronteira do Chitato, “Ocorrencias com trabalhadores nas explorações,” September 12, 1928, 1–3.
[98]MAUC, folder 86 14o, letter from Lute J. Parkinson to E. S. Lane, December 21, 1928, 1.
[99]Peter Greenhalgh, West African Diamonds, 1919–1983: An Economic History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985), 134.
[100]Rob Turrell, “Kimberley’s Model Compounds,” Journal of African History 25, no. 1 (1984): 176.
[101]John L. Hirsch, Sierra Leone: Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001), 27.
[102]Greenhalgh, West African Diamonds, 153.
[103]Motlatsi Thabane, “Liphokojoe of Kao: A Study of a Diamond Digger Rebel Group in the Lesotho Highlands,” Journal of Southern African Studies 26, no. 1 (March 2000): 105.
[104] Peter Greenhalgh, West African Diamonds, 1919–1983: An Economic History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985), 199.
[105] See, for example: Greg Campbell, Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 41–42, 124–25; Ian Smillie, Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption and War in the Global Diamond Trade (London: Anthem, 2010), 4, 13, 21–24, 56, 69, 85–86, 93, 122, 126–27, 149, 155, 170.
[106] Jakkie Cilliers and Christian Dietrich, eds., Angola’s War Economy: The Role of Oil and Diamonds (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2000), 5.
[107] Smillie, Blood on the Stone, 103.
[108] Campbell, Blood Diamonds, 85.
[109] Ibid., 91.
[110]http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/30/world/africa/netherlands-taylor-sentencing/.
[111] Gavin Hilson and Martin J. Clifford, “A ‘Kimberley Protest’: Diamond Mining, Export Sanctions, and Poverty in Akwatia, Ghana,” African Affairs 109, no. 436 (2010): 435.
[112] Smillie, Blood on the Stone, 17.
[113] Rob Bates, “Kimberley Confusion,” JCK 175, no. 8 (2004): 74.
[114] Ibid., 75.
[115] Richard Saunders, “Geographies of Power: Blood Diamonds, Security Politics and Zimbabwe’s Troubled Transition,” in Legacies of Liberation: Postcolonial Struggles for a Democratic Southern Africa, ed. M. Clarke and C. Bassett (Toronto: Fernwood, forthcoming 2014).
[116] Tinashe Nyamunda and Patience Mukwambo, “The State and the Bloody Diamond Rush in Chiadzwa: Unpacking the Contesting Interests in the Development of Illicit Mining and Trading, c. 2006–2009,” Journal of Southern African Studies 38, no. 1 (March 2012): 159.
[117] Celia W. Dugger, “Team Monitoring Diamond Trade Rebukes Zimbabwe, Citing Abuses of Miners,” New York Times, July 8, 2009, 4.
[118] Leslie Wayne, “The Chinese Solution,” 100 Reporters, October 31, 2011, http://100r.org/2011/10/the-chinese-solution/.
[119] Columbus S. Mavhunga, “Zimbabwe’s Parliament Approves $98 Million Loan from China,” CNN World, June 1, 2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/06/01/zimbabwe.china.loan/.
[120]Batswana is the plural form of Tswana, the dominant ethnic group in Botswana. However, since not all residents of the country are ethnic Tswana, I use Botswanans in this chapter when referring to multiple citizens of Botswana.
[121] The “Asian Tigers” are Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, each of which has a highly developed economy, having experienced rapid growth between the early 1960s and 1990s. Abdi Samatar features the expression “An African Miracle” in the title of his 1999 book about Botswana, An African Miracle: State and Class Leadership and Colonial Legacy in Botswana Development (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999).
[122] Samatar, African Miracle, 81.
[123] Ian Taylor and Gladys Mokhawa, “Not Forever: Botswana, Conflict Diamonds and the Bushmen,” African Affairs 102, no. 407 (2003): 272.
[124] Ibid., 271.
[125] Ibid., 273.
[126] Quoted on the De Beers website, at http://www.debeersgroup.com/operations/mining/mining-operations/debswana/.
[127] Thero Galeitse, “BCPYL wants De Beers, BDP relations probed,” Botswana Gazette, April 27, 2011, 1.
[128] Ibid.
[129] Taylor and Mokhawa, “Not Forever,” 274.
[130] Jacqueline Solway, “Human Rights and NGO ‘Wrongs’: Conflict Diamonds, Culture Wars and the ‘Bushman Question,’” Africa 79, no. 3 (2009): 340.
[131] Philippe Le Billon, “Diamond Wars? Conflict Diamonds and Geographies of Resource Wars,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98, no. 2 (2008): 360.
[132] Unfortunately, both the immediate destination and subsequent trails of these pigeon-smuggled stones remain somewhat murky.
[133] Donald G. McNeil, “Oranjemund Journal; Find a Diamond in the Sand? Just Don’t Pick It Up,” New York Times, April 27, 1998.
[134] Celia W. Dugger, “Group Won’t Suspend Zimbabwe on Mining Abuses,” New York Times, November 6, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/world/africa/07zimbabwe.html?_r=0.
[135] Paul Collier, “The Last Resource Frontier,” Project Syndicate, February 25, 2011, http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-last-resource-frontier.
[136] “De Beers Voorspoed Mine: The New Face of Mining in South Africa,” International Resource Journal (May 2010), http://www.internationalresourcejournal.com/resource_in_action/may_10/de_beers_voorspoed_mine.html.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cleveland, Todd, author.
Stones of contention : a history of Africa’s diamonds / Todd Cleveland.
pages cm. — (Africa in world history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8214-2100-0 (pb : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4482-5 (pdf)
1. Diamond mines and minin
g—Africa—History. 2. Diamond industry and trade—Africa—History. 3. Diamond industry and trade—Social aspects—Africa. 4. Diamond mines and mining—Economic aspects—Africa. I. Title. II. Series: Africa in world history.
TN994.A35C54 2014
338.2782096—dc23
2014007945
Stones of Contention Page 28