Impact of Conflict Diamonds in Africa

The Civil war in Sierra Leone and the conflict diamond crisis have attracted global attention from all over. Various media representations such as books, movies, and other websites have been created to raise awareness for such a pressing issue. A very famous yet controversial book by Ishmael Beah, “A Long Way Gone” is one of the most prominent examples of the horrors of the forced servitude as child soldier fighting for the RUF. Ishmael is forced to flee his home after the rebels launch an attack on his home village. As Ishmael and his friends hop from village to village in search of food hiding from the RUF, the kids were captured by the rebels and as a result were forced to become child soldiers at the age of 13. Ishmael now lived in what many would call a nightmare. The rebels used war propaganda and drugs such as cocaine and marijuana to brainwash the children into becoming fearless fighting machines that do everything they are told such as the murder of innocent civilians and other various brutal raids. Beah was eventually released from the rebels and on to a rehabilitation center where he begun to recover mentally. Even to this day in america, Ishmael still has PTSD for his living nightmare as a child soldier and as an adult, still has thoughts of murder and chaos. Another great media representation of the conflict diamond “war” in Sierra Leone is the film “Blood Diamond” by Edward Zwick. The film tells the story a Sierra Leonean man named Solomon Vandy who is separated from his family during an attack on his village by the rebels. He is imprisoned by the rebels and is then forced to work in a mining camp to mine for diamonds. Solomon then finds a large pink diamond known as the “Blood Diamond”. Solomon then hides the diamond before an attack occurs by the South African army on the encampment. After fleeing the encampment, Solomon ends up in a prison while searching for his family and word gets around that he knows of such a large diamond. Danny Archer an ex South African army soldier, frees Solomon from prison and in exchange asks Solomon to recover the coveted diamond. During their journey Solomon finds out that his son has been converted into a child soldier. Solomon later reunites with his son Dia and is so brainwashed that he can’t even recognize his own son. Danny gets shot and stays behind while Solomon and Dia go on after escaping the mining camp and recovering the diamond. These examples show that the innocent suffer and are traumatised during times of war and over conflict diamonds. Children are being forced to commit the same atrocities as adult men, innocent civilians are being killed. These atrocities must end and light must be brought to them to completely end the child soldier waged war over conflict diamond mines.

In the book "A Long Way Gone" it gives a true representation of a genuine story of records experienced by a genuine child soldier amid the Sierra Leone Civil War and conflict diamond clashes. Ishmael Beah depicts the terrible and shocking encounters he had as a child soldier. “The Villages that we captured and turned into our bases as we went along and the forests that we slept in became my home. My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed” (Beah 126).

Being a child soldier throughout in blood diamond conflicts utterly altered children’s psychological states. Over time Ishmael forgot everything about his peaceful past and had become familiar with murdering, drugs, and violence. This instance shows that innocent kids were forced to change or be killed during the blood diamond conflicts. Later within the book as Ishmael is free of his militant and tormenting life, unfortunately the suffering wouldn't finish there. For many child soldiers alike, those that did survive suffered extreme mental issues and disorders as a result of their experiences. The drugs that they got at such young ages seriously tampered with their mind states and a few were broken permanently. Ishmael suffered and still suffers from the killing and torture he witnessed and even administered. many veteran child soldiers currently have PTSD and different sorts of mental disorders. These experiences have caused many to crave killing, and has even led to some committing suicide. Ishmael explains “These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new life, which trigger memories from the past”(Beah 20). Ishmael Beah to this day is still fighting the demons within himself that are constantly trying to be unearthed and unleash the true terror of the life he lived as a child soldier. Not only is this happening to Ishmael, but to hundreds of other ex child soldiers all across the world.

The film “Blood Diamond” gives an extraordinary example of the experiences of civilians in Blood diamond conflicts. In the film Solomon Vandys village is attacked by the rebel forces