Member-only story
DeBeers Vs Botswana: Could Africa’s Most Stable Country Be Destroyed Over Diamonds?
Read on..
The Republic of Botswana is such an extraordinary outlier.
In a continent scarred by coups, famines and egregious political leadership this Southern African nation stands out like a beacon.
What’s also interesting here is that this isn’t at all by accident but actually by design.
And there’s quite a bit of history to support this.
Back when it was known as Bechuanaland, its leading chiefs went to see Queen Victoria with a view to getting assurances that it would not suffer the violent occupation which its neighbours had suffered at the hands of the Brits and Dutch.
This proactive approach meant that Bechuanaland enjoyed ‘special protection and status’ from the United Kingdom, which meant that the Brits didn’t meddle in the day to day business of governing the country, so long as the mining rights were signed away to the players handpicked by the British government.
The biggest beneficiary of this move by the British government was DeBeers.
And I should provide a brief synopsis for those who do not know very much about DeBeers courtesy of Wikipedia:
The De Beers Diamond Consortium is an…