Controversial Kanye West

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Recommended: Colonialism as cause of the war in Sierra Leone

The controversial artist Kanye West has always attempted to make known what he thinks, no matter if he has to be disrespectful or graphic in his illustrations of said topic. So it wasn't a real surprise when he chose to focus his energy into reveling to the American public horrors happening that had a direct connection with the beloved diamond stone. West's 2005 music video “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” shows the corrupted underground diamond trade in the African country, Sierra Leone. From this groundbreaking video, West showed the devastated lives those who worked on the mining rivers live. However upon further investigation into the issue of diamond workers in Sierra Leone there emerged the true source of the situation, a violent conflict between the government and rebel leaders. Due to this conflict the entire country was thrown on a downward spiral. This downward spiral eventually resulted in the people longing for the conflict to stop and for the country to come together as one again. The people of Sierra Leone want to forget about the events that transpired during their civil war, however the more we look and attempt to learn from what happened, the better we set ourselves up for the future. West's video only depicts one side of a multifaceted struggle of the diamonds in Sierra Leone, however from this one side the public is encouraged to research more into the conflict themselves and uncover the truth behind the diamonds that we so desperately love. As the music video begins a narration of a child worker from a diamond mine river starts to speak. The narrator begins on the lengthy hours they work mining diamonds and how they are under the “...watchful eyes of the soldiers...” who watch the children mine with their load... ... middle of paper ... ...violent and underground culture of diamond workers. These workers were treated terribly and would often be exploited for their man power by the rebel army in order for the army to have more weapons to fight the government of Sierra Leone. However, when I comes down to the real issue, the rebel army is the center of all the problems that arise, including the child workers and soldiers. The army was one of the major reasons why Sierra Leone's Civil War was as violent as it was. There was nothing to stop them from doing what they wanted and the diamond industry was seen as a income source to fund themselves against the government. However despite all the money and power the rebel army had, they were defeated and the government was reestablished, with order and democracy leading the new leaders reign. Works Cited alskdjflaksd flaksjd flkasjdflka sdlkasj dflka jsd

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