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Belgium “requesting the correct proof of origin”. Several discussions are underway behind the scenes. Africa - namely Botswana, Angola, the South African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, and a few other countries - produces more than
60% of rough diamonds
at global level.
The tracing system suggested will no longer allow African countries to certify their mined diamonds but should instead be shipped to Antwerp to obtain approval by a sort of “G7 diamond bureaucrat”, before they are cut, polished and sold. This means a delay in processing the diamonds, as well as serious cost implications.
While some African politicians have soberly called them “unintentional consequences” of the sanctions against Russia, other prominent figures have gone further saying what the true heart of the matter is: a direct attack on sovereignty and on African independence.
For many African countries, the proceeds from diamond mining are a significant share of state entries. Scores of millions of people
all over Africa are involved in this sector, working in difficult conditions, and putting their lives and health at risk every day. According to the G7 initiative, they will soon be at the mercy a of white person sitting in a cozy office thousands of kilometres away in Antwerp. While European officials publicly support the fact that Europe must take responsibility for colonial crimes and the United States are taking down the monuments of white colonisers and of slave traders, the reality on the ground, and in the mind of the G7 leaders, is very different. These countries are trying to put African resources and earnings under their control and therefore enslave the new generations of Africans.
A new era of “hidden” colonialism is opening before our very eyes, and the case of diamonds is a clear demonstration of this. The G7/EU countries will control trade and the rules of diamond circulation, while the Black people, i.e. the African countries, will take on all the work of extracting the rough diamonds for less than
2 dollars a day. Mokwena continues writing: “The whites will
have the margins
and control over the markets, while
the Black people will have the mines and the responsibility of showing that nothing has been violated, namely that the diamonds are not of Russian origin.
Only a white man from Antwerp can decide on the origin of the diamonds, you can never trust an African to do this. Is this not modern slavery for Africans, shrouded in “sanctions against Russia”?
Is there really such a difference for Africans between the system proposed and the fields of slavery created by the white suprematist Cecil Rhodes in the colony
of the Cape at the end of the 19th century, where thousands of Africans died in the diamond mines?
As already said, Africa produces more than
60% of rough diamonds in the world.
Moreover, almost 90% of the rough diamonds in the world, including
99% of African origin,
are cut and polished in India. At a time when
the diamond market is destined to grow in a more restricted supply context, bringing more money and prosperity to Africa, the G7
wants to control it and deprive us of our treasures and our profits.
The richness and
the prosperity of Europe and the United States
were built on slaves and on the exploitation of Africa during the colonial period. At the same time, they burnt several African countries to the ground, and many are still battling to recover. Why should the Africans tolerate a new method of exploitation of their land and resources? Antwerp has been the world diamond capital for centuries. Recently, it has lost its splendour, as new global diamond hubs have gradually emerged.
For the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, who has been one of the key supporters of the new tracing system, this change could also be considered a loss of power and influence.
In 2020, a statue of King Leopold II of Belgium, responsible for the death
of millions of people in Congo, was removed
from a public square in Antwerp after long protests against racism.
The new G7 initiative on diamonds, if implemented, will transform Antwerp into the global capital of the new era of colonialism”.
DIAMOND NEWS
di Luigi Cosma