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WHO OWNS THE DIAMONDS? THE OCCULT ECO-NOMY OF DIAMOND MINING IN SIERRA LEONE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2014

Lorenzo D'Angelo
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Abstract

Much of the literature on Sierra Leonean diamonds focuses on the role that this mineral resource played in the recent civil conflict (1991–2002). However, the political-economic perspective that is common to these analyses has lost sight of the main actors in this social reality. What do miners think of diamonds? Like their Malagasy colleagues engaged in the search for sapphires, the Sierra Leonean diamond miners often maintain that they do not know what diamonds could possibly be used for. What is specific to the diamond mining areas in this West African country is that suspicions and fantasies about the uses of diamonds go hand in hand with the idea that these precious stones belong to invisible spiritual entities known locally as djinns or dεbul dεn. Although this article aims to analyse the occult imaginary of diamond miners, it takes a different stand from the occult economies approach. By combining a historical-imaginative perspective with a historical and ecological one, this article intends to highlight the indissoluble interweaving of material and imaginative processes of artisanal diamond production in the context of Sierra Leone's mines.

Résumé

L'essentiel de la littérature consacrée aux diamants de la Sierra Leone porte sur le rôle qu'a joué cette ressource minérale dans le conflit civil récent (1991–2002). Or, la perspective politico-économique commune à ces analyses a perdu de vue les principaux acteurs de cette réalité sociale. Que pensent les mineurs des diamants ? Tout comme leurs homologues malgaches en quête de saphirs, les mineurs de diamants de la Sierra Leone soutiennent souvent qu'ils ne savent pas à quoi peuvent servir les diamants. Ce qui est spécifique aux zones minières de diamants de ce pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest est le fait que les soupçons et les fantasmes concernant l'utilisation des diamants vont de pair avec l'idée que ces pierres précieuses appartiennent à des entités spirituelles invisibles connues localement sous le nom de djinns ou dεbul dεn. Bien qu'il vise à analyser l'imaginaire occulte des mineurs de diamants, cet article prend une position différente concernant l'approche des économies occultes. En conjuguant une perspective historico-imaginative et une perspective historico-écologique, cet article entend souligner l'imbrication indissoluble de processus matériels et imaginatifs de production artisanale de diamants dans le contexte des mines de la Sierra Leone.

Type
Hidden Potential
Information
Africa , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , May 2014 , pp. 269 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2014 

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