Social – South Africa’s emerging “Black Diamonds”
In South Africa the emerging young, black middle class, sometimes referred to as Black Diamonds, have grown at an accelerating rate and have proven to have a strong influence on the rest of the country. The term was coined by TNS Research Surveys and the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing. SAinfo Reporter. (2013). It is worth noting that the South African black diamonds are a lot younger than the white middle class. UCT Unilever Institute. (2007).
In just 8 short years (2004 – 2012) the number of black people that were part of the middle class grew from 1.6 million to 4.2 million – a 240% growth in the middle class segment according to new research by the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing. UCT Unilever Institute. (2013).
The annual spend of the South Africa’s black middle class has since risen to over R400-billion per annum compared to their white middle class counterparts whose spending power is estimated at R380 billion. Disposable household income has increased by 35% for the black middle class, since 2004, and will continue to grow in years to come. UCT Unilever Institute. (2007).
Reports show that “12% of South Africa's black population account for over half (54%) of all black buying power". SAinfo Reporter. (2007).
Company example: BMW
One company that seems to have gained popularity among Black Diamonds is German automobile manufacturer, BMW. When black diamonds started emerging, owning a BMW was almost a right of passage for them. McLaughlin, A. (2005). For many people in the black middle class, cars are a symbol of status and wealth. SAinfo reporter. (2013).
BMW SA reported to CNN that with the recent Eurozone crisis occurrence, BMW wou...
... middle of paper ...
...uary 2014.
Cossou, E. (2010 ). Lagos aims to be Africa's model megacity.Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8473001.stm. Last accessed 18th January 2014.
EkoAtlantic. (2014). About Us. Available: http://www.ekoatlantic.com/. Last accessed 18th January 2014.
Duthiers, V. (2012). Lagos of the future: Megacity's ambitious plans.Available: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/22/business/lagos-urbanization-regeneration-infrastructure/. Last accessed 18th January 2014.
Ruddick, G. (2013). Aldi sales grow at record pace. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10331978/Aldi-sales-grow-at-record-pace.html. Last accessed 17th January 2014.
PSE. (2013). 1 in 4 children in poverty by 2020 – IFS forecast.Available: http://www.poverty.ac.uk/editorial/1-4-children-poverty-2020-%E2%80%93-ifs-forecast. Last accessed 18th January 2014.
Are African Americans perpetuating their own stereotypes about their culture? Possibly. African Americans are inherently less wealthy compared to whites and is an important fact to consider about the Black culture. Wealth is an...
Black Economics In Black Economics William Raspberry offers a personal insight into the economics of the black American, but as he states Raspberry is “neither a businessman, an economist, nor a social scientist.” He presents his views without analysis and his solutions without a business outlook; instead Raspberry looks to the people for the cause and the answer. William Raspberry makes a bold effort by calling on his race, the African Americans, for both the cause and solution to their economic problems. Raspberry chooses to open up with two myths about race, helping to set the tone of the paper. The first myth he deals with is that “race is of overriding importance, that it is a determinant not just of opportunity but also of potential, a reliable basis for explaining political and economic realities . . . ” He explains that it is easy to see how race has assumed such importance in the mythology since slavery is the very reason blacks are present in America. Raspberry continues to elaborate on the topic of slavery to produce the central theme of the myth: the myth of white superiority. There are two things that flow from the “racism-is-all” myth that are used to account for the difficulties of blacks. The first, Raspberry states, is that it puts the solution to their difficulties outside their control, and second it causes blacks to think of their problems in terms of a failure of racial justice. With the second result Raspberry elaborates by calling on civil rights. Income gaps, education gaps, test-score gaps, infant-mortality gaps, employment gaps, business-participation gaps, as stated by Raspberry are all now talked about as “civil rights” issues. He points out that the gaps are real, but that describing them as “civil rights” issues steers us away from possible solutions, and that while doing this the problems grow worse. He offers a comparison to a group of poor whites that are in a similar economic standing as blacks and are granted their full civil rights. So how can the lack of civil rights be responsible for their economic conditions when other groups are just as bad off without the racism factor? So if the racism myth is not the cause of the blacks difficulties, then what does Raspberry offer as the reason? To him the operating myth of blacks accounts for their condition, leading them to focus on the misdistribution of opportunities.
Frazier begins a more detailed explanation of his theories by discussing the place of the black bourgeoisie in the political and power structures of America. He contends that the black middle class has no real power in America at this time. He attributes the appearance of power to the fact that the members of the black bourgeoisie hold strategic positions in the segregated community. However, he maintains that all of these “power” positions still feed into the white power structure.
The National Archives | Exhibitions & Learning online | Black presence | Africa and the Caribbean. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/africa_caribbean/africa_trade.htm
Priscilla. “The World Economy and Africa.” JSpivey – Home – Wikispaces. 2010. 29 January 2010. .
populous city in Nigeria. In this essay I am going to critically examines push and
Up until the 19th century, diamonds were considered to be one of the most prized possessions that could be found, hence they were reserved only for those who are the heads of royal families. However, this all changed when English-born businessman Cecil John Rhodes bought up diamond fields in South Africa as well as claims to the diamonds and began the company ‘De Beers’, named after two brothers who had found deposits of the commodity on their land, which made it possible for the general public to own a piece of this precious stone – at a high price.
What is generally misunderstood about Africa is the wealth available in its boundaries, and the misconception of the middle-class in the U.S. and other countries of a similar economic bent. Though nine out of the ten poorest countries are in Africa and all but three of the top twenty, there is a nearly zero homeless rate, and everybody seems to be doing just fine. However it used to be similar in every single so...
Diamonds have been identified as being precious but expensive gems for many decades. Diamonds were extremely rare, only found in India and Brazil until the late nineteenth century (Vogelsang, 2005: 5). After the discovery of diamonds in South Africa, the diamond industry began to flourish. Diamonds then became very abundant and cheap to produce. In order for the value of diamonds to remain as high as they were during the phase in which they were still rare, a diamond cartel was introduced. A cartel is defined as a group of firms that gets together to make output and price decisions (Cartel Theory of Oligopoly, n.d.). Hence, the diamond cartel aimed to maintain high prices to maximise the profits of the suppliers by restricting the supply. This essay will analyse the history of the diamond cartel, including diagrams that illustrate what the price of diamonds would be with or without the use of a cartel. The notion that diamonds are the only suitable stone that can be used in engagement rings will also be commented on. Furthermore, specific attention will be placed on the role of the diamond cartel in determining the price of diamonds.
The business environment in Lagos, Nigeria and Africa generally, is evolving and changing at a great rate. Lagos is Nigeria’s commercial and industrial nerve centre and a focal point for key economic growth for Nigeria as a whole (BECANS Business Environment Report 2007). Over Fifty percent of Nigeria’s Industrial capacity is located in Lagos, with a variety of manufactured goods being produced in the city (Lagos State Government 2012).
Diamond mining in Africa has turned many parts of the country into a war zone, especially Sierra Leone and. Many people were left wounded and without homes, people were captured by the rebel groups and turned into slaves. Forced to mine diamonds against their will. The Civil War had been going on for ten years, for many children mining became a way of life and many of them were turned into child soldiers.
Due to the apartheid, today black South Africans are angered towards white people. Crime and violence is now extremely popular in ...
There are many famous precious materials that the everyday person knows of. Gold, silver and in more recent times platinum are all known for their scarcity and desirability. However it is a crystalline form of carbon, not a precious metal, which carries more prestige than all three of them together. The diamond. Ever since the Kimberly diamond rush began in 1866, diamonds have played a very distinct role in our society. We are taught from an early age on that diamonds are extremely valuable due to their unrivalled beauty and apparent rarity.
In Africa, one important feature of the urbanization process is that a lot of the growth is taking place in the industrial increase. Urbanization also finds expression in external expansion of the built-up area and the changing of prime agricultural lands into residential and industrial uses (Saundry, 2008). An alternate to the present expansion of the urban population across a wide area of the country in order to save crucial land for agriculture is to construct high-rise buildings and support commercial development in specific zones, which would depend on efficiency, and the right technology and resources (Hanson, 2011). In Africa, the urbanization processes are largely driven by market forces and government policies. This will lead to methods at the same time of change in incomes, land use, health and natural resources management including water, soil and forests and often reactive changes in local governments (The Economist, 2010). So this is saying that government development policies and budget divisions, in which urban residents are often favorites over rural areas and will tend to pull more people into the urban areas. I...
South Africa had always have youth leaders with similar ideology in transforming the country into a non-racial and multicultural community. In addition to that, people like Nelson Mandela “African National Congress” (ANC), Steve Biko “Black Consciousness Movement, play important role on transf...