An introduction to Africa's diamonds -- Africa's mineral wealth : material and mythical -- From illusion to reality : the Kimberley discoveries, the diamond "rush," and the "Wild West" in Africa -- Consolidation and control : the birth and growth of the cartel -- Creating "New Kimberleys" elsewhere in Africa -- The experiences of African works on Colonial-era mines -- A resource curse : "blood diamonds," state oppression, and violence -- Africa's diamonds : a rough past with a brighter future
Summary
Africa supplies the majority of the world's diamonds, yet consumers generally know little about the origins and history of these precious stones beyond sensationalized media accounts of so-called blood diamonds. Stones of Contention explores the major developments in the remarkable history of Africa's diamonds, from the earliest stirrings of international interest in the continent's mineral wealth in the first millennium A.D. to the present day. In the European colonial period, the discovery of diamonds in South Africa ushered in an era of unprecedented greed during which monopolist