Bad
Blood, Blood Diamonds
and
Why I Disagree with Russell Simmons
by
Davey D
A
version of this article originally appeared in Davey
D’s Hip Hop Daily News.
“Simmons
has gone to great lengths to defend the diamond trade.”
I
watched Russell Simmons on CNN the other day and saw what many may
have considered a strange sight. He was basically slamming the new
movie “Blood Diamonds” and demanding that its parent
company, Warner Brothers, be more responsible in producing films that
could unduly influence the
public.
When I heard that, I said to
myself: I will forever quote Russell whenever I engage some of these
industry types about the kind of material they are releasing to the
public. After all, if a big time music mogul like Simmons is calling
for restraint and balance because he sees the potential for adverse
effects, then it’s time for the industry to clean itself up.
After all, who would know better than Russell?
But let’s put
that line of discussion aside, for the moment. In the CNN interview
Russell said it’s important that all of us know our history.
With that sentiment in mind, I found it strange to hear Simmons
defending the diamond trade in South Africa and Botswana, two
countries he recently visited on a “fact-finding”
mission.
Please note that the horrific bloodshed and genocide of
the early 90s, the focus of the movie “Blood Diamonds,”
took place in countries like Sierra Leone and Angola. In my opinion
those conflict zones should've been included in any sort of fact
finding mission. By only going to Botswana and South Africa and
defending their diamond trade Simmons by default wound up defending
the De
Beers Company
which for years had a worldwide monopoly and brutally ruled the
diamond business in those two countries.
“Simmons
wound up defending the De Beers Company which for years had a
worldwide monopoly and brutally ruled the diamond business.”
For
folks who aren't old enough to remember, De Beers was set up by a
colonizer named Cecil
Rhodes
(yes the same Cecil Rhodes
who the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship is named after). He took over
what we now call Zimbabwe and called it Rhodesia. His De Beers
diamond company was and will forever be in many people's minds
associated with the brutal Apartheid regime of South Africa.
I
recall as a kid hearing all sorts of horror stories about how the
Black majority population in South Africa were forced to work in
diamond mines in subhuman conditions for pennies a day by the De
Beers owners with the military backing and blessings of the white
Apartheid government. Many Blacks were killed or crippled by cruel De
Beer bosses and Afrikaner police when they went on strike to demand
better work conditions. It was more than troubling to see how these
workers were forced to mine diamonds from their own land and have
these colonizers sell them all over the world, thus making both the
De Beers company and the White South African government rich and
powerful.
It's interesting to note that we didn't call those
South African diamonds “blood diamonds” back in the 80s
when many of us in the Hip Hop generation first became aware of all
the atrocities, but in many ways they really were. The blood of Black
South Africans was on many of those De Beers stones.
If that
wasn't bad enough, De Beers had a nasty practice of keeping diamonds
off the market so they could artificially raise prices and create an
illusion of scarcity. This practice was highlighted in the “Blood
Diamonds” movie.
“De
Beers had a nasty practice of keeping diamonds off the market so they
could artificially raise prices and create an illusion of scarcity.”
The
brutality of Apartheid along with the horrors of the diamond trade
were what motivated many of us as young college folks to become
involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement. We demanded that our
universities and other US businesses divest any and all funds from
South African businesses.
Many compared Apartheid with the
Holocaust because of how harshly whites treated the Black majority.
Sadly, President Ronald Reagan, Senator Dick Cheney, and later
President George Bush Sr. were in power during this period –
men who, along with Israel, staunchly supported the white terrorist
Apartheid government every step of the way.
They vetoed every UN
proposal for sanctions against the South African regime. They called
then incarcerated Nelson
Mandela
and his African
National Congress
(ANC) “terrorists”
who were to be feared. There was even a point where right-wing
knuckleheads in this country advocated that the US purchase South
African diamonds as a way to oppose the ANC because they were getting
help from Fidel Castro and communist organizations. Remember, the
folks in power who guarded our beloved Democracy here in the US were
doing very little to end Apartheid. This is the “history,”
as Russell Simmons pointed out, we should always remember and never
downplay or conveniently overlook.
Now during his CNN interview
Simmons claimed that he understood De Beers had a bad history, but
times have changed and this once notorious diamond company had also
changed for the better. Simmons noted that up to 80% of De Beers
diamond profits now go back to South Africans and that the money
generated from diamond sales now allow Africans an opportunity to get
a stronger economic foothold.
As I listened to him run all this
down, I kept saying to myself, “Fuck That! De Beers shouldn't
own any of those diamond mines. In the backdrop of all the brutality
that occurred over the years, there should be NO splitting of any
profits. It should be fully 100% controlled and owned by Africans.”
Simmons
has gone to great lengths to defend the diamond trade, including
featuring De Beers company representatives at his New York press
conference. It was as if Jewish leaders had invited representatives
of a company once owned by Adolf Hitler to help explain why it makes
sense to split profits with a firm built on the slaughter of Jews and
the theft of their resources.
“The
memory of De Beers as a stalwart of the White Apartheid regime is
still firmly etched in our minds.”
I
know in South Africa, they have a Truth
and Reconciliation Commission
through which a lot
of past atrocities have been forgiven. But for many of us here in the
US there was no truth and reconciliation process. Many of us vividly
recall our empathy with the plight of our South African brethren
during the Anti-Apartheid struggle. The memory of De Beers as a
stalwart of the White Apartheid regime is still firmly etched in our
minds.
The money that De Beers and others have sunk into the PR
campaign to counteract the message of the movie “Blood
Diamonds” would have been better used to send emissaries around
the world, to apologize and try and make right the role De Beers
played in keeping the Apartheid regime running. In fact, little has
been heard from De Beers since the end of Apartheid – until
they showed up hanging with Russell to whitewash the diamond
trade.
Heck, I don't even recall seeing or hearing any mass media
PR campaigns from this company when all that horrific bloodshed and
genocide was taking place in Sierra Leone. De Beers wasn't popping up
on BET or CNN back in the early 90s explaining that they had nothing
to do with the real life Blood Diamond conflict in the region.
With
respect to Russell Simmons, he said that on his fact finding mission
he was asked by leaders of Botswana and South Africa to come back and
deliver a message about the “real facts” surrounding
diamonds. First, he pointed out that he went to the diamond mines in
Botswana and everything he witnessed seemed up to speed and that
there were no abuses taking place.
Next, he pointed out that
blood diamonds are only 1% of the diamonds being purchased worldwide
He also noted that the diamonds we buy today go to directly helping
Africans. He then cited Nelson Mandela as one of the leaders who
asked him to pass this message along to counteract the impression
many would be getting from the movie “Blood Diamonds.”
Now, a couple of things need to be kept in mind. A good friend
and fellow writer Nida Khan of The Source raised the question at
Russell's press conference: Had he really been exposed to the harsh
conditions and unsavory behavior that still goes on in many of these
diamond mines? Would the governments of Botswana or South Africa
really show such a high profile figure the dirt that goes on behind
the scenes and off camera?
“Had
he really been exposed to the harsh conditions and unsavory behavior
that still goes on in many of these diamond mines?”
The
second thing to keep in mind: If Russell is delivering a message from
Nelson Mandela, then why didn't Mandela himself, a Noble Peace Prize
winner who is admired around the world, issue his own statement and
hold his own press conference? No disrespect to Russell, but why
speak for a guy like Mandela on such a volatile subject? Now perhaps
I missed something, but I searched Google, Yahoo and a number of
South African newspapers. I couldn't find anything about Mandela
speaking on this issue. I did see a couple of articles with Noble
laureate Bishop
Desmond Tutu
coming
out against the Botswana government and De Beers’ sister
company for pushing the Bushmen off their native land. In fact as I
am writing this I'm going to do one last search.
I checked the
following South African papers:
http://www.bday.co.za/
Business
Day (Johannesburg)
http://www.mg.co.za/
Mail
and Guardian (Johannesburg)
http://www.suntimes.co.za/
Sun
Times (Johannesburg)
http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/
Sunday
Independent (Johannesburg)
In all these papers I did not see one
mention of Nelson Mandela talking about how us buying
diamond-encrusted pieces from Jacob the Jeweler or any other diamond
dealer here in the US was somehow going to be saving Africans. Folks
are welcome to do the search themselves. I'm not perfect, so maybe I
overlooked something.
Most of the articles I read spoke about the
connection and partial ownership De Beers has with the main diamond
company in Botswana called Debswana.
Many of the articles focused on how the Bushmen
in Botswana have been tricked and forced to get off their native land
so De Beers and everyone else can mine diamonds. Most importantly,
many of the articles focused on how the average person in Africa is
not seeing the benefits of all those diamond sales. The whole
scenario reminds me of how we have been tricked into going along with the
lottery. Everybody buys lottery tickets to help get much needed money
to improve our school systems, however, public schools from New York
to Cali are still in shambles.
In the Cape
Town Daily News I did come across an
interesting story that describes how the US State department is
making all sorts of moves to counter the message of “Blood
Diamonds.” They fear the movie can have an adverse effect on
the economy. That's a story I haven't seen here in local Cali papers.
As I read the story I could only
shake my head. The people in power are all too familiar with how
influential pop culture can be. They understand the power of images
and lyrics and all that. They clearly comprehend that this stuff is
not “just entertainment” as many would like you to
believe. So it's not just Russell running around defending the
diamond industry – it's our own government. Go figure. I guess
some things never change. It's the same government that defended De
Beers during Apartheid. The same government is defending De Beers now
that the movie 'Blood Diamonds' is out.
“It's
not just Russell running around defending the diamond industry –
it's our own government.”
The
only positive article I saw regarding how diamonds are somehow
helping out Africans was in South Africa's Business Day newspaper.
It's an opinion piece that was published in August 2006. I saw no
other articles supporting this claim in the months and weeks leading
up to the “Blood Diamonds” movie controversy.
We
should also note the recent so-called studies that some are citing
about the benefits of the diamond trade are financed by – guess
who? – the diamond industry. A lengthy apology for De Beers and
the rest of the diamond cartel appears in the London-based Royal
United Services Institute
publication, African Security,
Commodities and Development.
“Contrary
to the widespread perception of a business operating outside or on
the fringes of the law, diamond producers have instead worked
together with governments and nongovernmental organisations to
establish a unique regulatory public-private partnership as the
Kimberley Process….
“A
positive attitude towards the harvesting of resources in Africa –
especially diamonds – by the international community is needed.
Today’s African governments are more responsible and responsive
towards their citizens; so nongovernmental organisations and other
advocacy groups should adjust their view of Africa lest they damage
the very people they are trying to assist.”
Who
are you going to believe – De Beers and some British Royal
Institute?
One thing Russell said on CNN that I can agree with is
that Hollywood and many others have never given a damn about Blood
Diamonds. Russell rhetorically asked, Where were all the movies and
films when genocide was taking place in the early 90s? It's a good
question that many will have to wrestle with. That would include then
President Bill Clinton, The NAACP and dozens of other organizations
and churches.
Sadly, many of us within Hip Hop when all this
bloodshed was going on suddenly abandoned our leather African
Medallions and started blinging out with platinum and diamonds. This
includes some of the artists that Russell himself worked with. If you
recall, when all the slaughter was occurring in Sierra Leone, many of
us were watching Biggie and 2Pac videos, talking about how jiggy we
were. We all have to own up to our collective silence and ignorance
on one of Africa's most devastating periods.
But with all that
being said, the debate has now been raised, and it's important that
we understand both the history and the politics of the day. One thing
I find especially troubling is that while De Beers is launching an
all out PR campaign and Russell is telling us to go buy diamonds to
support Africa, I still have yet to go to a diamond district in NY,
LA or here in the Bay Area and see some cats from Botswana or Black
South Africans selling me some diamonds wholesale in a store they own
100%.
I see commercials every day from diamond retailers like
Zales, Tiffany’s and “Paul from the Diamond Center,”
but I never see us Black folks doing the selling.
It seems like
when half the rap community goes out to purchase diamond-encrusted
grillz to make their mouths look like “disco balls,” they
are usually purchased from fellow rap star
Paul
Wall.
Is the money he's charging for all those 30
thousand dollar-plus grillz going to help Africans build a clinic to
fight AIDs in Botswana? Are Lil
Wayne,
Nelly,
Jermaine
Dupri
and other grill wearers sporting those
gaudy mouth pieces with the intent of helping impoverished Africans?
“I'm
not buying any diamonds, especially if they're from De Beers or any
other company connected to them.”
I
can't call it, but stuff don't seem right. As for me I'm not buying
any diamonds, especially if they're from De Beers or any other
company connected to them. If we really wanna help out Africa how
about making sure the debts they incurred from first world nations
when they got rid of colonizers is forgiven and forever erased. How
about us demanding that they be allowed to use generic drugs to fight
the scourge of HIV and AIDS and not be caught up in some super rich
drug company lobbying our government to put the screws to Africa
because they violated some unfair trade agreement. How about we look
at the insidious ways in which countries like Belgium manipulated
things to help cause some of the wars that led to genocide over
diamonds. Lets bring those people to justice.
Anyway, in 2006 I'd
rather buy some damn property before I buy diamonds. If you're really
about blinging buy a land deed not a stupid diamond chain.
Something
to think about!
Davey D is
the Hip Hop historian, journalist, deejay and community activist,
based in the San Francisco Bay area. He can be contacted through his
web site at http://www.daveyd.com.
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