| The Diamond Feilds Kono, Sierra Leone |
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| Sierra Leone is a beautiful country rolling with lush green hills, thick forests, winding rivers and white sandy beaches. It is also rich in minerals, in particular diamonds.....Its curse. Due to the brutality of the 10 year conflict, Sierra Leone became synonimous with blood diamonds. Kono was the district to control. The warring faction that controlled Kono, controlled the illicit diamond market. |
| Mining Fields From the Air, Koidu |
| Small Mining Operation, Koidu |
| A lot of people talk about the diamond mines in Kono. I like to think of them more as diamond fields. When I think of mines, I think of bored holes and shafts managed by a big corporation. For the most part, what I saw in Kono were vast fields of dirt where people used picks axes, shovels, and water pumps to dig holes no deeper than 7 meters. There were many small organized operations which were usually funded by Lebanese businessmen. Most of the diggers in these operations were given a cup of rice and the equivalent of 25 cents a day. If they were lucky they received a very small cut (which was divided among them) of any diamonds found in their diggings. However, the vast majority of people I saw were freelance miners who would sift through the muddy river water or dig through the tailings of the official operations. These men worked under the scorching sun each day hoping to find crystal. Luck wasn't guaranteed. |
| Digging |
| Hand Over Hand |
| I would say Diamonds are a drug in Kono. It is said that in Kono nobody greets anyone in the street because they are too busy looking down hoping to trip over some sparkling stone. People will dig anywhere, anyhow to find a diamond. When I first arrived in Kono people were mining in the middle of Koidu town, the commercial center of the district. (There are easily 20,000 people living in Koidu. Nobody knows the actual size of the town because displaced people and refugees continue to return. There is also the transient nature of a boom town that makes calculating the size difficult.) The lawlessness of the war allowed the diamond craze to get out of hand. The rebels, RUF, dug across the paved highway between Yengema and Jaiama leaving the route completely useless. Many people coming back after years of displacement were shocked to enter their living room or kitchens and find the floors riddled with holes. Whoever occupied the house during the war decided that there must be diamonds under the concrete. Then you hear the sad stories of people getting ripped off. In 2002, BBC aired a report about a large diamond that disappeared. One of the stories I heard, stated that the man who found the diamond brought it to Freetown to be registered at the Ministry of Mines. He was asked to come back the following day. On his return the official told him that the crystal he gave him was worth nothing .... that all it was a piece of glass. Interestingly, he never got his piece of glass back. |
| Working the Pump |
| All You Need |
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