Facets of Power

Download or read book Facets of Power written by Richard Saunders and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The diamond fields of Chiadzwa, among the worlds 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 Chiadzwas diamonds was hotly contested. By 2007 a new case of blood diamonds had emerged, in which the countrys 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. Facets of Power is the first comprehensive account of the emergence, meaning and profound impact of Chiadzwas 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 minerals secretive and violent beneficiaries. If the lessons of resistance have been mostly disheartening ones, 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.