Reaction Paper on Genocide from the film Blood Diamond

citation: www.imdb.com

The setting of the film Blood Diamond is Sierra Leone, a West African country ravaged by political unrest. In this unrest, rebel factions terrorize the countryside intimidating and enslaving the locals in order to harvest diamonds (Herskovitz & Zwick, 2006). The funds raised from the sale of the harvested diamonds are use to fund the war. Vandy is an angler but works under Captain Poison, a ruthless warlord. He discovers a pink diamond in a riverbank, which he buries in a soft earth. When Captain Poison learns about the stone, he plans to take it up. However, before acting, the government security forces raid the area. Captain Poison, Vandy, Danny, and Archer are later incarcerated in Freetown. Archer is a gunrunner jailed for smuggling diamond into Liberia. He help Vandy flee from detection after learning about the pink diamond. The intention was to take away Vandy’s stone and flee from Africa, the Dark Continent. However, this never happened. Instead, he entrusted the stone to Vandy and instructed him to take it to his family. In the end, Vandy, now living in the UK, met the Van de Kaap’s representatives who wanted to buy the jewel. Women and children are the major victims of war despite their minimal involvement.In the movie, women and children are depicted as being in one company yet separate from men. They are described as the major casualties in the event of a civil war or political unrest. Culturally, children and women remain in homes (Healey, 2010). In this regard, they are not involved in malpractices like diamond smuggling as depicted in the movie. For instance, the male characters, Vanty and Archer, are actively involved in Diamond smuggling in order to raise funds for their wives and children.

In this film, there are two classes: the poor and the rich. The rich intimidates the poor and enslaves them by making them harvest diamonds. The diamonds are used as a source of funds for their operations. The poor do not have the power to protect themselves and their property. The rich, who are corrupt and smugglers, use their power to rob the poor of their valuables. Archer is rich because of being involved in diamond smuggling. He uses his status to free Vandy from detection in order to later kill him and obtain the pink diamond. There is also a struggle among the rich to own property such as diamond. For example, such a struggle prompted Archer to kill Coezee.

In “Blood Diamond,” every man fights for his destiny. Solomon Vandy hopes to be reunited with his three children and wife. Danny is determined to get out of Africa permanently. The film also portrays racial and cultural fascination with black African images. The images function as gruesome scenes within rebel training camps or as colorful scenery, and a manifestation of pure evil. The pure evil depicted in the film is one that incidentally likes listening to rap. The characters also wear a gat and Snoop Dogg T-shirts.

Though the movie captures the actual scenario of the genocide in Sierra Leone, it fails to bring out the hidden role played by other rich nations of the world. This is because much of the smuggled diamond was ended up in the hands of these rich nations. The movie should have featured the diamonds’ complete cycle, from harvesting to final consumption. However, I feel that the movie went a long way in sensitizing the world on the plight of women and children in war-ravaged regions (Solleh, 2009; Veale & Stavrou, 2003).


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References

Healey, J. F. (2010). Diversity and Society: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

Herskovitz, M. & Zwick, E. (2006). Blood Diamond. United States: Werner Bros.

Solleh, K. F. (2009). Kono Gold or Koine Gold: Onomastics: The Human Naming Tradition. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.

Veale, A., & Stavrou, A. (2003). Violence, reconciliation, and identity: the reintegration of Lord’s resistance army child abductees in northern Uganda, ISS monograph series, (92).