Due to the mistreatment of the native Kalahari Bushmen there is currently a boycott on Botswana diamonds, which are mainly purchased by United States jewelers.
The Botswana diamond trade is well-known because of the amount of revenue that diamonds generate every year. The boycott of these diamonds, however, is not as public. Launched in November 2010, the Botswana diamond boycott is an effort to discourage consumers from purchasing Botswana diamonds until Kalahari Bushmen are allowed to return to their ancestral lands. After the tribe was forced from their lands in 2002, a four-year court battle ruled the eviction “unlawful and unconstitutional.” Nonetheless, the Bushmen are being starved off of their own land because of a diamond deposit in the area worth an estimated 3.3 billion dollars. Instead of negotiating a move, the government is forcing the tribes off of the land by cutting food and water supplies. As a result, an international boycott of Botswana diamonds kicked off in London and San Francisco to convince consumers from engaging in Botswana tourism and diamond purchases. Survival International, a tribal rights organization, has taken the case to courts on the grounds that the Bushmen are once again being unconstitutionally evicted off of their land. The court process will be slow, but hopefully justice will prevail.
Sources: Boaz, Peter (2010, Nov 5). “Group says bushmen evicted over diamonds,” All Africa http://allafrica.com/stories/201011050263.html
n.a. (2010, Nov 3). “Botswana diamond boycott launched with protests at De Beer,” Survival http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/6649
Student Researcher: Lou Walker III
Expert Evaluator: Jacquelyn Walker, Attorney at Law, Syracuse University