In 2024, the diamond industry is staring into the abyss.
🚫 Russian sanctions, collapsing prices, and a lab-grown diamond boom are shaking the industry to its core. Consumers are losing faith in natural diamonds like never before. 💥💔
But this isn’t the first time De Beers faced total collapse — and survived with wild diplomacy.
Let’s rewind to the 1950s, when South Africa’s political chaos almost killed De Beers… but instead helped it become stronger than ever. 🤯
🕰 Flashback to 1948:
- South Africa’s far-right National Party seizes power
- They vow to reclaim the country’s mining wealth from British control
- De Beers, a symbol of British mining dominance, becomes their #1 target
👊 The Boers (Afrikaners) create “Federale Mynbou” — a nationalist mining fund meant to kick De Beers out
- By 1957, Boer forces start hostile takeovers of British mining companies
- De Beers faces losing control of everything
🎯 Then comes the twist:
De Beers goes behind the government’s back and reaches out to... the Soviet Union 🤝🇷🇺
In a secret Moscow deal, the USSR begins funding the African National Congress (ANC) — the black liberation movement violently opposed to the apartheid regime
- 💣 By 1963, the ANC’s military wing “Spear of the Nation” carries out 193 attacks
- 🔫 Soviet money, weapons, and training flow to South African insurgents
🧠 What’s the strategy?
By destabilizing the apartheid government, De Beers weakens the Boers’ mining ambitions
- South Africa is forced to spend massive amounts on internal security
- British banks step in to "rescue" Boer companies by quietly taking shares
- De Beers keeps importing Yakut diamonds from Russia, sells them globally, and... possibly funds ANC through intermediaries 🤫
📉 The outcome:
Boers increase their mining control from 1% to 18% — but never get full dominance
De Beers survives the takeover, and its British backers tighten their grip on South African resources
🕵️ Bonus Plot Twists:
- The British agent who funded the ANC? Oleg Gordievsky — also a Soviet double agent working for MI6
- Cash bribes were handed over literally in suit jacket pockets
- Boer-backed companies got sanctioned... while British-owned firms like De Beers were left untouched 🤐
✨ Moral of the story?
The diamond industry has never just been about diamonds.
It’s about power, politics, and playing the long game.
So while today’s leaders throw around sanctions and tariffs, history reminds us:
💎 Sometimes your enemy is the only one who can keep your empire alive.