The Dark History of Diamonds and De Beers

How can something so beautiful have caused so much misery?

Photo by Pixel Bee on Unsplash

When you think of diamonds, what phrase comes first to your mind? “Diamonds are forever”? Or “blood diamonds”? It is a tribute to the power of marketing that the former probably sprang to your mind quicker than the latter.

Diamonds have been revered throughout history for their beauty and their rarity, and have often been the cornerstone of royal jewelry and collections. This despite the fact that, as author Tom Zoellner (The Heartless Stone) says, “They are not, in fact, rare. The market depends on artificial scarcity.”

Perhaps the piece of jewelry most associated with diamonds is the diamond engagement ring. In 2010, 84% of all brides-to-be in America received such a ring. In 2018, the average amount of money that people budgeted when buying such a ring was a staggering $7,400. But how did diamonds become so associated with love and marriage?

It All Began With a Marketing Campaign

But, before the marketing campaign, came the realization that diamonds were not really all that rare.

In the late 1800s, South African mines began producing a massive amount of diamonds. For a stone that had previously derived almost all of its…