Precis: The Poisonwood Bible is a 658-page novel written by American author Barbara Kingsolver in 1999. The novel sets a stage of a missionary father, Nathan Price, that brings his family to Africa during the 1960's. Nathan is on a mission to spread Christianity and convert American customs to everyday African customs. Kingsolver shows a parallel in how a family is able to be torn apart by conflict and customs to actual occurrences of this in real life.
Is the expense of an innocent life worth the becoming wealthy from diamonds? The ongoing conflicts in Sierra Leone and surrounding African countries propose this question. M.C. Ayafor, a Chairman of the Sierra Leona Panel of Experts, states, Diamonds are forever it is often said. But lives are not. We must spare people the ordeal of war, mutilations and death for the sake of conflict diamonds(Conflict Diamonds-UN- 1). Conflict diamonds and African customs are powerful enough and most likely to tear a family apart. In Barbara Kingsolvers novel The Poisonwood Bible the Price family is torn apart because of African customs, similarly, conflict diamonds separate and displace many African families.
Diamond conflicts began with a small, yet important, discovery of a pretty pebble along the banks of the Orange River in South Africa in 1867 (Saari 1). After the discovery, miners then found a prosperous diamond field in present-day Kimberly, South Africa. Diamond conflicts then began when word of the discovery was spread from Africa to England. British settlers rushed to Africa in hopes of discovering diamonds. Conflicts fueled between the English settlers and the Boers about the diamond fields. The Boers were decedents of Dutch settlers whom had claimed control and ownership over the diamond fields. These actions then lead to the start of the Boer War in 1880. Although the discovery made by the miners was small it impacted Africa forever.
Prior to 1991 there was little coverage by the media of diamond conflicts in Africa. However, in 1991 the worlds attention was grasped by rising conflicts in Sierra Leone, which were mainly plotted and implemented by former Corporal Foday Sankoh. After being released from the Sierra Leonean army Sankoh, along with allies Rashid Mansaray and Abu Kanu, formed the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group revolting against Sierra Leonean government to form their own. The Revolutionary United Front proclaimed their belief that the Sierra Leonean government was corrupt and was mismanaging the diamond industry (Sierra Leone 1). Ibrahim Abdullah and Patrick Muana describe the Revolutionary United Front in this statement:
...The RUF has made history; it is a peculiar guerilla movement without any significant national following or ethnic support. Perhaps because of its lumpen social base and its lack of an emancipatory programme to garner social groups, it has remained a bandit organization solely driven by the survialist needs of its predominately uneducated and alienated battle front and battle group commanders. . . Revolutionary United Front (RUF) 1)
Until Sankohs appearance of The RUFs Footpaths to democracy: Toward a new Sierra Leone in1995 it was ambiguous what Foday Sankoh and the Revolutionary United Front wanted. Over the next 10 years Sankoh violated Sierra Leoneans human rights and more than 50,000 Africans were killed and over a million were displaced due to current conflicts and new ones arising.
Sankoh fueled conflicts and continued ordering his Revolutionary United Front rebel forces to do indecent operations such as mass murders, brutal rapes, and stealing. Approximately twenty five percent of Sankohs troops were under the age of eighteen. Sankoh used highly addictive and illegal substinces, such as cocaine, to induce children so they will adhere to his directions and fight his war(Vo 1). One operation Sankoh had his troops execute was Operation Pay Yourself. The goal of the operation was to steal anything and everything his troops could find, which would be their self-payment. Sankoh had his troops complete unimaginable tasks such as this the entire time he was in control.
In 1997 Sankoh is put on death row for the human right violation crimes he committed. However, when the United Nations signed the peace deal in 1999 Sankoh was let free due do the amnesty he was granted. Sankoh then became vice president during the same year. Nevertheless Sankohs undeserved claim to power was short lived because in 2000 he was indicted for 17 counts of war crimes, including human right violations (Foday Sankoh 1). While Sankoh was awaiting his trial he suffered from complications after a stroke and was given, what the chief prosecuter explains as . . .a peaceful end that he denied so many others(Foday Sankoh 1).
Diamond conflicts in The Democratic Republic of Congo were the main stimulant of the Congo war. The United Nations defines Conflict Diamonds as:
. . .diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or fractions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decision of the Security Council . . . They are also known as Blood Diamonds (Conflict Diamonds 1).
Beginning in 1991 and concluding a decade later more than fifty million Congolese were affected during the Congo war (Congo Civil War 1). The majority of the war took place in Eastern Congo however, beginning in 1995, nine other African nations became involved consequently making the Congo War the widest interstate war in modern African history (Congo Civil War 1).
Towards the second half of the Congo War and Sierra Leone conflicts the United Nations became more influential and productive in aiding African nations and bringing peace to Africa. The first action taken by the United Nations occurred in 1999 when the United Nations agreed to a peace deal. However, the peace treaty fell was criticized because it would give amnesty to Revolutionary United Front rebels for their inhumane acts against human rights (Sierra Leone 1). The United Nations pleaded that this peace deal was not a perfect deal, however it was the only option. Nevertheless, the Sierra Leonean government had the . . . sovereign right to do this, leaving the United Nations with a weak excuse to concede (Sierra Leone 1). In spite of the peace deal human rights conflicts continued in the Congo and Sierra Leone. Consequently the United Nations took action and deployed troops to diamond-rich (Sierra Leone 1) regions of Africa to take control over the rebel forces. However, rebel troops pushed forward and help a number of United Nations peace keepers hostage, causing the necessity of more United Nations troops to be sent to Africa to rescue any British from rebels (Sierra Leone 1). After this occurrence it was a well known fact that more action needed to be taken by the United Nations to end the inhumane conflicts taking place in Africa.
After coming to the realization that diamond were fueling conflicts in Africa the United Nations Security Council levied and enforced an eighteen month ban on diamond exports from Sierra Leone(Sierra Leone 1) in July of 2000. Several diamond corporations worldwide knew of the illegality of these diamonds and others were ignorant of the situation at hand. However after the diamond export ban was enforced by the United Nations these occurrences and problems in the diamond industry were almost completely eliminated. Although the diamond conflicts seemed to be extinguished, the United Nations took even further action by enforcing penalties in Liberia for aiding and supporting the Revolutionary United Front. Additionally, in hopes to eliminate more violence, the United Nations imposed a diamond mining ban in Sierra Leone starting on July 18, 2001 (Sierra Leone 1).
Finally in 2003 the Kimberly Process Certification System was created to ensure no conflict diamond trade occurred. Prior to the Kimberly Process being created approximately four percent of the worlds diamond were conflict diamonds. After the process was created and enforced less than one percent of the worlds diamonds were conflict diamonds. To ensure the Kimberly Process was effective the United Nations banned the Republic of Congo from participating in diamond trade and kept a close watch on both Liberia and Ivory Coast. Although the United Nations was less productive and effective towards ending the diamond conflicts in Africa during the late 1990' they had a strong comeback beginning in 2000 and were extremely productive in ensuring the end to conflict diamonds.
In 1999 Harper Co. Published Barbara Kingsolvers novel The Poisonwood Bible. Kingsolver shows a evangelical family that is on a missionary trip to Africa to convert American customs into everyday African customs. However the family is torn apart due to conflicts and customs. Similarly, many families were torn apart during the Congo War and Diamond Conflicts in Sierra Leone.
Although the media has not spent much time on ensuring that Americans are aware of diamond conflicts in Africa a world known music mogul has- Kanye West. West, a well known rapper, has used his power in the music industry to educate his fans about Conflict diamonds. In 2005 Kanye West released his single Diamonds from Sierra Leone off of his second album Late Registration. Throughout the song West explains the atrocious acts to obtain blood diamonds. Kanye West uses the next three lines to explain the suffering that Sierra Leoneans go through everyday in order for thousands of people worldwide to have the diamonds they own today:
People lose hands, arms for real
Little was known of Sierra Leone
And how it connect to the diamonds we own -Kanye West, Diamonds from Sierra Leone
West is also able to show the appalling situations in Sierra Leone through his music video. The music video is shown in black and white and begins with a journey down a diamond mine in which you see young children mining . . . 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(Shah 1). The video was purposely directed to show the seriousness of the situation at hand in Sierra Leone and to inform Wests fans of the conflicts in hope that they will take action.
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