Diamonds from Sierra Leone

"Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is a song published with its music video by Kanye West 2005.  While the  song never reached the status of a "hit," its music video has had a huge impact on society.  West decided to write this song and publish this music video in order to bring awareness to conflict diamonds, specifically in Sierra Leone, the center of blood diamond harvesting.  In addition, West encourages viewers to make sure that they purchase conflict free diamonds in the future.  This video was made soon after they world began to gain awareness of blood diamonds.  In Sierra Leone and some other African countries, child labor forces are being used to mine for the valuable jewels.  These children are forcably taken away from their families and are then supervised by extremist soldiers.  The kids are rarely given breaks, and hardly ever even see the light of day.  If uncooperative, the children will have their hands cut off by soldiers, or they may be forced to kill their own families.

Because of this threat to human society, Kanye West felt it important to bring awareness to this issue.  He mainly focused on Americans, the major consumers of diamonds and West's largest group of followers.  In order to do this, Kanye relied heavily on pathos to get his point across by portraying the pain and suffering of the children of Sierra Leone.  Before the song even starts, a native's commentary on the situation is played, along with footage from the diamond mines.  This makes the reader sympathize with the children right off of the bat.  This also establishes ethos by incorporating someone who has experienced the tragedy first-hand into the video.  From there, West uses imgery to help the reader see the devastation in Sierra Leone.  For example, a woman receives an engagement ring, and as she puts it on, blood rushes from her finger and engulfs her arm.  Standing next to her is a child from the diamond mines.  A repeated image or symbol in the video is the fully dialated and fully-black eyes of the child slaves.  This is because they never see light; they are in the mines during all hours of the day.  This image haunts the viewer and further adds to the effective us of pathos.  West is effective at portraying his point because of the haunting and devastating images he shows to the viewer, convincing them to forever stay away from conflict diamonds.