Facets of power - Politics, profits and people in the making of Zimbabwe's blood diamonds -H Kalmer

Facets of power - Politics, profits and people in themaking of Zimbabwe's blood diamonds -Harry Kalmer(AFRICANA OUT OF PRINT NEW)

The diamond fields of Chiadzwa in the Marange District,among the world's largest sources of rough diamonds, have been at the centre ofstruggles for power in Zimbabwe since their discovery in 2006. Against thebackdrop of a turbulent political economy, control of Chiadzwa's diamonds washotly contested. By 2007 a new case of `blood diamonds' had emerged, in whichthe country's security forces engaged with informal miners and black marketdealers in the exploitation of rough diamonds, violently disrupting localcommunities and looting a key national resource. The formalisation of diamondmining in 2010 introduced new forms of large-scale theft, displacement andrights abuses, with as much as $13 billion now estimated by government to havegone missing. Facets of Power is the first comprehensive account of theemergence, meaning and profound impact of Chiadzwa's diamonds. Drawing on newfieldwork and published sources, the contributors present a graphic andaccessibly written narrative of corruption and greed, as well as resistance bythose who have suffered at the hands of the mineral's secretive and violentbeneficiaries. If the lessons of resistance have been mostly disheartening,they also point towards more effective strategies for managing publicresources, and mounting democratic challenges to elites whose power issustained by preying on them.

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