Digging for diamonds, wielding new words: A linguistic perspective on Zimbabwe's 'blood diamonds

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 129-144

  Nyota, Shumirai ^a   Sibanda, Fortune ^a  

^a GREAT ZIMBABWE UNIVERSITY   (Zimbabwe)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMPLEXITY; CULTURAL IDENTITY; DIAMOND; FINANCIAL CRISIS; LANGUAGE; MINING;

ZIMBABWE;

EID: 84859310625     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2012.656436     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. The informal interviews conducted for this study indicate that some people believe that the presence of diamonds at Chiadzwawas originally discovered during the colonial era and that they had been exploited clandestinely since that time. The Geological Map of Zimbabwe (7th edition, 1994) shows the existence of intrusive igneous rocks with kimberlite (diamond) noted as available in the Zambezi Valley and the Midlands area. Its 'reliability diagram' shows that Chiadzwa falls under 'mapped areas' and 'from best information available' that lie between 32 and 33 degrees (Eastings) and 19 and 20 degrees (Northings). In his speech to theWorldDiamond Council in July 2010, Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines, Obert Mpofu, referred to several periods of country-wide exploration and prospecting for Footnote 1 continued diamonds by companies likeDeBeers, that had taken place at different times during the twentieth century, before and after independence. Despite these efforts the mines at River Ranch and Marowa were only established in the 1990s and early 2000s (See 'Speech ByTheHonourableMinister of Mines And Mining Development,Obert Moses Mpofu, At The World Diamond Council, 7th Annual Meeting Held in St Petersberg, Russia on 15 July 2010', available at http://www.worlddiamondcouncil.org/download/7wdc/WDC%202010%20-%20Obert%20Moses%20Mpofu%20(July%202010).pdf, retrieved on 4 November 2011).
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18. However, in the Zimbabwean context there is no problem of civil wars. The suitability of the label would be in line with the death of unarmed illegal diamond panners who were allegedly shot sporadically by the army and police safeguarding the Chiadzwa fields. Because of this problem, each state has to pass the Kimberley Licence Protocol before its diamonds can be accepted on the official market.
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27. It is interesting to note that in one instance in 1992, European miners, who were permitted, unlike African workers, to take industrial action and to form labour unions, went on strike. The strike turned violent and the government called in the army to suppress it, claiming 230 lives. Although the victims, in this case, were white miners, this 'bloody' encounter is illustrative of the social struggles that can surround the establishment of 'legal' mining industries, and therefore substantiates our point here that the South African experience is as relevant to the Zimbabwe case, as comparison with the more recent diamond-fuelled conflicts elsewhere on the continent.
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77. We also gathered this from informants who asserted that the place paid most but was also the most heavily guarded.
78. This label is derived from the Shona word 'kupusa' which means being unwise. The same name tag was used to refer to a church organisation where male adherents sexually abused women folk with impunity.
79. Some magweja believed that the diamonds were like the biblical 'manna' that Moses used to feed the wandering Israelites, illustrating how Christian discourses and themes were appropriated alongside and intertwined with ancestral and other 'traditional' religious themes in gweja diction and life.
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83. This is a Shona derivation from English word 'glass'. In gweja tradition it means clear diamonds which are highly prized as compared to 'ngoda' which are rough diamonds.