Diamonds Are From Sierra Leone

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Unlike the ‘sponsor-a-child’ infomercials, ‘Diamonds’ opens with the caption ‘Little is known of Sierra Leone / And how it connects to the diamonds we own’ (Mukherjee 2012, 113).

The video takes viewers into dimly lit diamond mines, where children are forced to mine for ‘small bits of carbon that have no intrinsic value in themselves, and no value whatsoever to the average Sierra Leonean beyond their attraction to foreigners’ (Source: Brown 2005, np link)

Scenes of patrician privilege that feature white patron at an upscale diamond boutique are disrupted as the largest, and presumably most expensive, of the store’s gems is held out for perusal by the skinny dark arm of an unseen African child. (Source: Mukherjee 2012, 113).

The final rescue in ‘Diamonds’ is orchestrated by converting a vintage luxury automobile, an iconic symbol of status within the emulative cultures of consumption, into a weapon of militant disruption, ramming it headfirst into the genteel civility of the diamond boutique (Source: Mukherjee 2012, 113).

Raising thorny issues about child soldiers, slave labour, and the culpability of the global diamond industry within these conditions, West’s video appeared in the midst of a surge of Western interest in the ‘conflict diamond’ trade and its humanitarian costs (Source Mukherjee 2012, 113).

West originally wrote Diamonds are Forever to commemorate the rebirth of the Roc-a-Fella dynasty (which is symbolized by the diamond-shaped hand sign). However, after he heard about the death and destruction caused by the conflict over diamonds in Sierra Leone, Africa, he said that he saw a different meaning in the song (Source: Anon nd, np link).

Q-Tip, the former member of A Tribe Called Quest … alerted West to the issues surrounding conflict diamonds. Having boned up on the subject, West promptly changed the title and themed the video accordingly but it was too late to alter the lyrics. The result is a curious compromise, a protest song in name only … ‘Good morning, this ain’t Vietnam/ Still, people lose hands, legs, arms for real,’ Ye rhymes. ‘It was known, in Sierra Leone / When I speak about diamonds in this song / I ain’t talking about the ones that be glowing / I’m talking about Roc-A-Fella, my home / These ain’t conflict diamonds, is they Jacob? / Don’t lie to me, man / See, a part of me saying, ‘Keep shining,’ / How even though it’s thousands of miles away / Sierra Leone connects to what we go through today … I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless / Till I saw a picture of a shorty armless / And here’s the conflict.’ Jay-Z, … hops on toward the end of the track, talking about an entirely different conflict: his ongoing feud with former partner Dame Dash, who, in the June issue of XXL, said that Jay took the Roc-A-Fella name and essentially forced Dame out of the business they built together. ‘The chain remains, the gang is intact / The name is mine, I’ll take blame for that,’ Jay raps. ‘The pressure’s on, but guess who ain’t gon’ crack / Pardon me, I had to laugh at that / How could you falter when you’re the rock of Gibraltar? / I had to get off the boat so I could walk on water’ (Source: Crosley 2005, np link)

West made two versions of song, each sampling the theme song from the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey. The original track showcases West’s anger about being passed over during the 2005 Grammy Awards (Source: Dudding 2011, p29 link).

The song is about the blood diamonds from Sierra Leone which are the reason for child slavery in the African mines where the diamonds are found. [Kanye West] telling people not to buy these conflict diamonds, and instead buy the diamonds which don’t cause slavery and abuse for the people mining them (Source: Stanley 2014, np link).

[The scene where a] man proposes to his girlfriend and soon after he puts the the ring on her finger the woman’s hand start to bleed while an African girl is in the background … is so powerful because when we get these items like diamonds we are happy and excited but if we ever know where these items come from and the struggles that these items cause to people we wouldn’t really want to purchase them as much (Source: md922 2013, np link).

I’ve been giving speeches and talking about the slave trade on diamonds in Sierra Leone for years. I was really happy to hear about this song. I wish it talked more about the tragedy in Sierra Leone, and less about Vegas or Alicia Keys. But I still really appreciate that he put this out there and let the world at least start to realize what’s going on in Africa. Stop supporting genocide, stop buying diamonds (Source: Elaine 2005, np link)!

how many times do i have to say this. I am only saying that kanye is a hypocrite, he wears a muthafu**in diamond mask at his concerts, you can’t argue with that (Source: FixedChamp 2014, np link).

More folks have recently become more aware of ‘conflict diamonds’ because of Kanye West’s hit song (Source: Cho 2008, np link).

I just saw this new Kanye West video about ‘blood diamonds’ in Sierra Leone, and I’m afraid that my diamond might have funded torture or slavery, and I think maybe I’m a bad person for having it (Source: Cole 2005, np link)!

‘Up until I heard Kanye’s song ‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone,’ I had never even heard of the country,” [Paul] Wall said. ‘But once I did, I wanted to find out more, and I wanted to try to help out. So we went to Sierra Leone — me, Raekwon and Tego Calderón — and it changed our lives. We saw the diamond mines and the amputee camps, and it was hard to believe that especially in 2006, people can be living like this’ (Source: Montgomery 2006, np link).

Diamonds has been a headache for its maker … Negative reactions from West’s core fanbase stung him into dropping four of the album’s more outre songs, including one that features John Mayer and a harpsichord, and replacing them with more conventional hip-hop tracks. Never one to understate his case, he proclaims on the crunching, martial Crack Music: ‘This is black music, ni**a!’ … All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this.’ Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar (Source: Lynskey 2005, np link).