Article - Diamonds...


 
A lot happens without our knowledge. When a protest action against the illegal diamond trade was held in New York City 2001, a lot of people raised their eye-browns. Ok, we’re aware of that bad things happen on continents far away but that the conflicts are as close as around our necks, many of us didn’t have a clue about. The consciousness has not grown today.

People are murdered and maimed because of diamonds. It becomes especially contradictory when black rappers wearing heavy chains rap about oppression and the hard knock life. Big diamonds and platinum is the stuff to wear – how can that be so wrong? Diamonds are forever, right?

In Sierra Leone, a country with enormous diamond assets, it is estimated that 20 000 have got their arms, legs, lips or ears cut off with machetes or axes. Ironically, it’s the answer to the Governments campaign “Join hands for peace”. Guns and other ammunition have been financed by those hard rocks. They’re called blood diamonds, diamonds that have been sold by African rebel movements in order to pay and fuel the conflicts. Sierra Leone is just one country among others.
But diamonds are forever. We’ve been told that in the Bond-flick, it’s said in music and coined by the, by far, largest corporation, trading with diamonds – De Beers. And it’s more than that.

It’s the chorus in the strongest shining star’s Kanye West’s song, the rapper that criticized President Bush for not caring about black people under hurricane Katrina. He’s the guy being called the return of the Black Panthers. He stands up for black people.
Two versions of the song Diamonds from Sierra Leone were released. One of them, the first released, is full of stories about Kanye not affording a Ford Escort back then, but now being able to buy a Porsche, and the crisis his ego suffered when he didn’t win this and that expected award. The second version, also known as the remix and featured by Jay-Z, is a more conscious story complicating the use of diamonds.

The beginning of the first verse went from:
Close your eyes and imagine, feel the magic
Vegas on acid,
Seen through these St. Laurent glasses
And I´ve realized that I´ve arrived, cuz
It take more than a magazine to kill my Vibe does

To:
Good morning, this ain't Vietnam still
People lose hands, legs, arms, fo' real
Little was known on Sierra Leone
And how it connect to the diamonds we own

Whether the both versions were made at the same time or the first not so critical was altered, is hard to know.
- I don’t remember all the talk concerning the Sierra Leone-song but I do know that they both were done from the beginning, it’s typical Kanye to start showing off his diamonds and then make the audience question why he’s doing it, where the diamonds come from and so on. As all the other rappers, he can’t stay away from the same symbols of status, but he has at least a little bad conscious for them, says Martin Gelin, freelance journalist stationed in New York City.

At the same time, a stubborn rumour has it that Kanye got a lecture from an older old-school rapper, for not being critical and therefore, he changed the lyrics.
- Kanye West has done a thing of being contradictory, he makes himself a symbol for the opposition between poverty and materialism that characterizes so much of the black culture in USA, Martin Gelin says.
And in the remix of the song, that’s precisely the topic.

It's in a black person's soul to rock that gold
Spend your whole life tryin' to get that ice
On a Polo rugby it look so nice
How can something so wrong make me feel so right?

In the beginning of November, a short film called ”Bling: consequences and repercussions” had its screening at a New York film festival. The film deals with the obvious paradox and the general lack of knowledge about the conflict diamonds. Some interviewed do barely know that Sierra Leone is a country, even less how it in any way can have anything to do with them.
- Most rappers are black and they should be supporting Africans that get hurt because of diamonds, a young guy says and finishes the short film.

That’s kind of the problem. Rap is often considered critique against oppression. But at the end of the day, it’s kind of the same thing with people talking about the importance of solidarity and still be wearing Nikes on their feet. How much consequence can one demand from each and every one?

Illustration: Jakob Larsson

Author:
Danina Mahmutovic