Botswana is frequently championed for responsible use of its diamond resources in development. In an industry too often marked with stories of brutality and exploitation, Botswana is a success story for diamonds as much as diamonds have benefited Botswana. Supported by diamond revenues – Botswana is the largest producer in value of diamonds in the world – the country has developed into a stable multiparty democracy with the lowest levels of corruption on the continent. While neighboring Zimbabwe may be one of Africa’s biggest tragedies, Botswana is often held up as Africa’s gem.
But a new book coming out may tarnish that reputation a bit. In “Heart of Dryness,” American journalist James G. Workman reports that a high level Botswana government official confirmed what many have suspected: that Kalahari Bushmen were evicted from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in order to gain better access to a massive diamond deposits located in the park.
The battle with the Bushmen date back to the early 1980s when diamonds were discovered within the reserve. Shortly afterward, the government enacted a policy of “integration” where from 1997 until 2005 almost all the Bushmen within the reserve were forced out of their homes and their communities destroyed in order to live in government resettlement camps. The forced expulsions stopped after the Bushmen won a landmark court case in 2006 where the Botswana Supreme Court found that they had a constitutional right to their lands. However the government responded by cutting off their water supply inside the reserve, making living life there impossible. The situation was further exacerbated when the government granted a mining permit for the Kalahari Gaming Reserve to Gem Diamonds on the condition that they did not provide the Bushmen with water.
The revelation that diamonds are in fact behind the destruction of the Kalahari Bushmen is not surprising. But it does raise new questions about the diamond industry and its ethics. Advocates have long criticized the diamond industry for its tactics and less than vigilant attitude towards grave human rights abuses from Latin America to Australia. In the late 1990s, this criticism gained popular support with the issue of conflict diamonds that were funding horrific wars in West Africa. But since the creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to regulate the trade of conflict diamonds, attention has turned away from the diamond industry and its policies. But conflict diamonds are only one aspect of the diamond industry; the Kimberley Process does not stop human rights abuses in cases such as these because there is no “conflict” behind the destruction of these communities. However that does not make the violation of basic human rights any more acceptable.
Diamonds are considered to be the most concentrated form of wealth on the planet. In Botswana they are reason behind much of the development the country has been able to attain. But with that wealth comes the responsibility not to abuse it. That responsibility falls on both the Botswana government and the diamond industry in general. Today they are both failing in that task and it is the Kalahari Bushmen who are paying the price with water.
