CYMBELINE
That diamond upon your finger, say
How came it yours?
IACHIMO
Thou’lt torture me to leave unspoken that
Which to be spoke would torture thee
- William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
P.8 It had been formed eons ago, crystallised under extreme pressure and
temperature dozens of miles below the surface and carried up through a
kimberlite pipe, subsequently shaken loose and eroded out, and then sent on
a desultory, waterborne journey that took centuries to carry it here, near
the village of Bomboma, where it was embedded in red dirt and gravel under
the floor of a wild jungle. People have lost their hands, their lives, and
their families for little stones like this one, which looked quite
insignificant there on the bank of the pit. The diamond was then wrapped in
paper and disappeared into the foreman’s shirt pocket. Eventually, after
passing from African hands to Lebanese dealers, it will wind up in London
and then probably Antwerp, Belgium,, or Bombay, India, or New York City,
where it will be cut and polished if the quality justifies it. On its own,
the Little Rock that was discovered as I crouched by the mine’s edge is too
small to make a very impressive engagement ring, but it might end up as part
of a $1,000 necklace or bracelet. Out guide guessed that if the quality was
decent, the miner might get $5 for it from one of the diamond merchants in
Kenema.
The digger who found it gets another bucket filled with gravel to wash.
P.21 Sierra Leoneans, with the oversight of a British administration, had
experienced no success in harnessing the country’s most valuable natural
resource, as the diamond boom of the 1950s had shown. More diamonds were
smuggled away than were exported, robbing the country of taxes and contracts
that could have been used to build roads, utilities, and medical and
educational facilities.
P.103 Similar in many ways to the California Gold Rush, the South African
diamond rush lured hundreds, then thousands of prospectors to South Africa’s
scrappy farmland, usually men and families with few other viable
opportunities who were enticed by the dream of instant wealth that, for
many, turned out not to be dreams at all.
P.108 De Beers had a hand in nearly every diamond mine in the world and
agreements with all the major producers and brokers to sell their stones
only to them. What developed was a cartel of diamond producers, buyers, and
sellers overseen by De Beers, which took on the role of “market custodian”
for rough goods bought and sold throughout the world. That way, De Beers
could sell the stones to a small clique of hand-selected “sightholders,” or
preferred customers, at regular “sights” held ten times a year. Amazingly,
the sightholders agreed to but the gems at a price set by De Beers without
ever laying eyes on the stones. Sometimes, sightholders got a real gem of a
package, so to speak; other times they got diamond chips not with the price
they paid. Of course, they could refuse to pay, but they’d never be invited
back to another sight.
P.122 The diamond industry knew all along where some of its stones were
coming from, but that’s not to say that midstream processors like cutters,
importers, and resellers actually bought the gems from someone with a pistol
in one hand and a bag of rough in the other. In this close-knit world, the
vast majority of diamond deals are based on trust and a person’s word. In a
world as small as that of the diamond industry, that’s usually enough to
foster long term relationships. A long-time buyer of polish from a shop in
Antwerp, for example, wouldn’t dream of asking to see the paper trail for
the diamonds he’s buying. If a dealer says they’re clean, they take their
word for it. Once cut, it’s almost impossible for anyone to tell where a
diamond originated.
P.209 “The fact of the matter is that to the consumer it’s a very
low-interest issue,” said Tom Shane, the American diamond importer. “Even
with all the articles that have been written, we don’t hear it in our stores
being raised as an issue.”