3 - Digging for Diamonds

Summary

Diamond mining along with other mineral mining has accounted for a significant slice of exports and government revenue in Sierra Leone, though it has never been the largest employer of workers. Agriculture has traditionally been the largest and continues to be so. However, mineral production has always been perceived as an avenue for economic development, not least amongst those communities who have remained marginal in discussions on development. Yet as we have seen in the previous chapter, diamonds and other minerals have not led to the development that many had hoped for. Poor management, increasing economic dependency on the export of primary commodities like diamonds and a heavy reliance on foreign investment has had a detrimental effect on development. Not only has this stifled economic change but it has also had a distorting effect on more general socio-economic and political developments. Independent governments in Sierra Leone inherited (unchallenged) an authoritarian colonial economic and political structure that was subsequently used in the interest of the new African elite. Little was done to utilise this mineral wealth for the betterment of wider civil society. Instead, much of this wealth was squandered and misused by governments to buy amongst other things political patronage and to add to the accumulation of personal wealth.