Full Description
The diamond fields of Chiadzwa in the Marange District, among the world's largest sources of rough diamonds, have been at the centre of struggles for power in Zimbabwe since their discovery in 2006. Against the backdrop of a turbulent political economy, control of Chiadzwa's diamonds was hotly contested. By 2007 a new case of 'blood diamonds' had emerged, in which the country's security forces engaged with informal miners and black market dealers in the exploitation of rough diamonds, violently disrupting local communities and looting a key national resource. The formalisation of diamond mining in 2010 introduced new forms of large-scale theft, displacement and rights abuses, with as much as $13 billion now estimated by government to have gone missing.
Facets of Power is the first comprehensive account of the emergence, meaning and profound impact of Chiadzwa's diamonds. Drawing on new fieldwork and published sources, the contributors present a graphic and accessibly written narrative of corruption and greed, as well as resistance by those who have suffered at the hands of the mineral's secretive and violent beneficiaries. If the lessons of resistance have been mostly disheartening, they also point towards more effective strategies for managing public resources, and mounting democratic challenges to elites whose power is sustained by preying on them.
Contents
Contents: Acknowledgements; Foreword by Alois Mlambo; 1. Richard Saunders - Introduction: The Many Facets of Marange's Diamonds; 2. Richard Saunders - Geologies of Power: Conflict diamonds, security politics and Zimbabwe's troubled transition; 3. Alan Martin - Reap What You Sow: Corruption and greed in Marange's diamond fields'; 4. Shamiso Mtisi - Enforcer or Enabler: Rethinking the Kimberley Process in the Shadow of Marange; 5. Farai Maguwu - Marange Diamonds and the Kimberley Process: An Activist's Account; 6. Tinashe Nyamunda - Free for All? Artisanal Miners and Local Development on the Edges of State Control, 2006-2008; 7. Mathew Ruguwa - The Social Impact of Mining on Schools in Marange, 2006-2013; 8. Crescentia Madebwe and Victor Madebwe - Forced Removals and Hidden Power: Involuntary displacement and resettlement in Marange; 9. Melanie Chiponda - Holding Ground: community, companies and resistance in Chiadzwa; 10. Richard Saunders - Epilogue: Back to the Beginning.
