Conflict Diamonds in Popular Media
PostBy Avi Paz Group At 01.09.2010
Not many years ago, comparatively few people were aware of the problem of conflict diamonds, which had been documented by the United Nations since the 1980s following the outbreak of civil war in several diamond producing nations in Africa.
That has changed. The 2006 film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, who also co-produced it, is set during Sierra Leone's civil war and exposes the issue of conflict diamonds and the effect the civil strife had on the civilian population.
The Lord of War, a film starring Nicholas Cage as an illegal arms dealer, was released in 2005. The movie focuses primarily on illegal international arms trade, but also addresses the problem of diamonds being used to fund civil wars when the Cage's character accepts blood diamonds in exchange for a shipment of guns and ammunition. Much of the film's plot is based on historical events, and deposed Liberian president Charles Taylor – as of September 2010 on trial for war crimes committed during his presidency – served as the basis for one of the characters.
Also in 2005, rapper Kayne West released the Grammy-winning song "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" after learning about how diamonds were used to fund civil wars in Sierra Leone and other West African nations. A remix of the song says "This ain't Vietnam/ Still, people lose hands, legs, arms for real/ Little was known of Sierra Leone/ and how it connect to the diamonds we own." The song and the music video end with the exhortation "Please purchase conflict-free diamonds."
Summer 2010 saw real headlines that focused on a celebrity embroiled in a conflict diamonds scandal – supermodel Naomi Campbell. Campbell was accused of having accepted rough diamonds from Taylor at a dinner party she attended in South Africa in 1997. Campbell, who reportedly complained of the "inconvenience" of having to testify, told the court she had never heard of either Taylor or conflict diamonds at the time.
Actress and activist Mia Farrow, who was at the party where Campbell was allegedly given the stones, refuted the model's version of events.
