African civil wars are often brutal and long. But Sierra Leone’s descent into chaos was horrifying even by African standards. The former British colony’s decade-long civil war killed an estimated 50,000 people, and left some 10,000 without hands or arms. More than a million Sierra Leoneans were left homeless. Human Rights Watch, no stranger to horrible tragedies, called the atrocities “the worst we have seen anywhere in the world.”
Most of the atrocities were committed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Abject rural poverty provided a fertile recruiting ground for the RUF and other rebel groups, who trained children as young as eight into brutish foot-soldiers, fueled by alcohol and drugs.
The RUF’s calling card was to hack off the hands or arms from its victims, even children. Murder, rape and abduction were alternatives.
In 2001, the RUF and the government finally started making moves toward peace — ending fighting, turning over child soldiers to the UN for repatriation, allowing refugees to return. But restoring life in Sierra Leone after the terrors of the 1990s will be a long struggle.
Some diamonds have helped fund devastating civil wars in Africa, destroying the lives of millions. Blood diamonds or conflict diamonds are those sold in order to fund armed conflict and civil war. Profits from the trade in blood diamonds, worth billions of dollars, were used by warlords and rebels to buy arms during the devastating wars in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone. Wars that have cost an estimated 3.7 million lives.
While the wars in Angola and Sierra Leone are now over, and fighting in the DRC has decreased, the problem of conflict diamonds hasn’t gone away. Diamonds mined in rebel-held areas in Côte d’Ivoire, a West African country in the midst of a volatile conflict, are reaching the international diamond market. Conflict diamonds from Liberia are also being smuggled into neighboring countries and exported as part of the legitimate diamond trade.
What’s being done to stop conflict diamonds?
A major milestone occurred in 2003, when a government-run initiative known as the Kimberley Process was introduced to stem the flow of conflict diamonds. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes requirements on participants to certify that shipments of rough diamonds are conflict-free.
If you want to get a proper feel for what’s going in the country check out The Beautiful Struggle , a radio documentary by BBC 1Xtra’s Rodney P from his recent visit to Sierra Leone. Another good way of exploring Sierra Leonean music is the internet radio station Sierra Leone Radio . One of the most prominent shows is by UK-based Sierra Leonean DJ collective and promoters outfit SL4U (=Sierra Leone For You), a group of nine young entrepreneurs all hailing from different ethnic regions in Sierra Leone.
The SL4U radio show is on every Thursday, 8 - 11pm, (repeated Sunday, 1 - 4pm, and Monday, 11.30am - 2.30pm) and features SL4U members Dr Mo, Benson and DJ Little playing the best and latest of Salone music as well as interviews and chat, conducted mainly in Krio, which addresses topical entertainment and social issues affecting the Sierra Leonean community both at home and abroad.
Salone music is a real revelation - the blood diamonds are making way for the true diamonds from Sierra Leone. Keep your ears and eyes open for the real sparkle coming out of this rejuvenated country!
In 1991 the West African country of Sierra Leone saw the start of a more than a decade long civil war which left 50,000 people dead and many more affected emotionally and physically (the rebels’ atrocities included hacking off the hands of their victims). It took a huge number of foreign troops to disarm the thousands of rebels and militia fighters. The war ended in 2002 with the official withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping force on 31 st of December 2005. A month before, on 26 November, more than 15,000 people attended the ‘War Don Don, Peace Don Kam’ music festival to celebrate the peace. The festival bill included the cream of Sierra Leonean stars.
But Sierra Leone’s problems are not over: there is poverty, tribal rivalry and official corruption. Although Sierra Leone is rich in diamonds, the trade in illicit diamonds was particularly rife during the war as it partly funded the conflict with weapons being bought from the foreign diamond trade.
On Kanye West’s latest album, one of the tracks shows that he is one of the most diverse rappers, in terms of music and lyrical content. The single ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone’ is about the so-called ‘blood diamonds’.
You can find out more about ‘blood diamonds’ or ‘conflict diamonds’ on the Amnesty Interanational website , on the UN website and the Global Policy Forum. The documentary ‘Bling: Consequences and Repercussions’ by Kareem Edouard also tackles the issues behind hip-hop’s obsession with diamonds and the illegal trade in countries like Sierra Leone. Narrated by hip-hop legend Chuck D of Public Enemy, the 10 minute film is not for the faint-hearted as it contains contains graphic scenes of violence:www.wghfilms.com
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