Diamonds by J. Sorie Conteh. Essay

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The entire framework of the country is shifting, and it is leaving the people from the rural outskirts behind. Soon, the natives will be like strangers in their own country, and they will not retain any rights or voice.

Even worse, those whites with power and money run the government, and own just about anyone they want by bribing them and throwing their money around. Conteh writes, "People who had money could to virtually anything and get away with it, if they knew the right channels" (Conteh 97). That means the government is corrupt, and does not exist for the good of the people, but only for the good of the few and the powerful. In governments like this, there is usually revolt and revolution, both by the people and inside the government, creating an unstable environment for the country and society.

There is another lasting affect on society brought on by the diamonds. They bring whites from all over the world into Sierra Leone, where they gain political and social power. The country's native peoples fall to the stature of workers and the working poor. They not only lose their way of life, they lose their country to these invaders, and they can do nothing to stop it, because they lack power, knowledge, and the ability to fight back.

As Gibao becomes wealthier he becomes greedier, and this is another commonality with society. Gibao had promised he would return home when he had enough money, but there is never "enough," he always wants more. His family comes to live with him and slowly disintegrates, and he abandons the old people in his village who depended on him. His life turns into a nightmare of making more and more money, and doing anything to acquire it, even sacrificing his wife's sister in an attempt to ensure his continued success.

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He has become as depraved as any of the others who mine, and it leads to his downfall. He has become what he despised at the beginning of the novel, and he has turned full circle from the gentle man that came to Sewa. The novel shows that greed can destroy a person, but it can also destroy a society. A society that is so consumed by greed as to revolve around it is a society that will perish, just as Gibao perishes at the end of this novel. Everything he did led him to that gallows in the woods, and everything Sierra Leone did, by allowing the diamond trade, led to the collapse of their society.

In conclusion, clearly, the message of this novel is that greed can corrupt a person, and it can corrupt an entire society. There is not one aspect of Sierra Leone society that escaped change after the diamond mining started. Gibao's story is tragic, but it is a tragedy that occurred because of greed, avarice, and desire. Sewa's society is depraved - built on alcohol, prostitution, and avarice, and a society that has deteriorated that far is difficult to recover. It is also built on violence and death, and the feeling that anything is possible with money. Gibao's life is an illustration of that. He throws away everything he believes in, and his knowledge of right and wrong in his quest for money and success, and in the end, it costs him everything......

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