As I walked into the room where an event by Sierra Leone Red Cross was hosted, several necks craned to see the foreigner. As the morning progressed, each speaker addressed me in their remarks, reiterated points from my speech and made constant eye contact, almost at the cost of sidelining other guests. I felt important and powerful but could not justify all the attention to my work or the organization I represented. Afterall, there were several others in the room doing equally important work.

I knew it was something much deeper and for the first time, I had taken the time to notice my privilege as a lighter-skinned foreigner in Sierra Leone.

As I introspected, a lot of things started to make more sense. Like the time a 14-year old told me she preferred my fairer skin over her own dark skin, or the time I walked into a store and got a major discount while everyone else paid the full price, or when people let me jump the queue to buy tickets.….it seemed like I had been rolling in privilege without ever noticing it. How would I? Afterall, it felt so comforting and empowering.

 These instances got me thinking about the paradoxes of privilege. In Sierra Leone, I felt privileged because of my skin color and economic status, but simultaneously felt underprivileged because of my gender. Casual sexism, unwarranted remarks and the struggle to appear credible continue to be everyday challenges. So, can we be relatively privileged and underprivileged at the same time? When these play out in everyday life, which identity subsumes the others? These thoughts raised the broader question of  ‘how much insight do we actually have about our privileges?’

This question is critical because the extent of insight shapes our worldview and influences how we make sense of topics ranging from feminism and racism to caste. For feminism, eliminating ‘male privilege’ is a quintessential part of progress. But it is often hard for several men to spot this privilege and acknowledge it, let alone work towards rejecting it. As reiterated earlier, this is not an easy process. Acknowledging privilege often involves attributing entitlements to something we are born with (labelled ascribed status in sociology) like skin color, sex, caste, social class of parents, rather than what we acquire owing to our hard-work and achievements (labelled acquired status). Given our tendency to attribute successes to one’s own achievements, there is often ignorance or even denial surrounding privileges we are born with.

This is also reflected in debates surrounding caste, which engender the critical question of ‘how do we reject a system that discriminates people based on archaic notions of social stratification’? For some, the solution is to ‘reject casteism by ignoring it’. Afterall, if you want to do away something, the idea is to not pay attention to it, so it perishes over time. However, this line is thinking becomes possible only when someone has the privilege to ignore its influence. To be able to ignore it requires entitlements to be bestowed upon us.

This is all to say that the idea of privilege is a continuum. Each of us forms opinions and worldviews depending on our ascribed and acquired statuses. While there exist different shades of privilege, it is increasingly becoming hard for one shade to recognize and empathize with the other in today’s world. Perhaps it is time rethink the color palette of privilege.

Driving around the largest diamond mine in Sierra Leone, I was told that the massive  mountain hid unimaginable riches. Wealth enough to lift thousands out of poverty, to provide basic necessities like clean drinking water, schools, hospitals and to bring the fragile $1.9 billion economy back on its feet.

Curious to see this mine from the inside, we started making our way in only to have the car promptly stopped by armed security guards. “Get permission from Freetown” ordered the man, who thought we were journalists in Kono with a mission of exposing labor practices and conditions inside the mine.

His concern was understandable, for the mining industry has a dark underbelly in this country. Diamonds fueled the brutal 11 year-civil war and engendered the infamous ‘Conflict Diamonds’ market. As diamonds left the borders, weapons flowed in and smuggling flourished. Since the end of the war in 2002, it was anticipated that diamonds could be legally channelized to bring revenues into the country. But little has changed since then. The diamond mining industry currently employs around 300,000 to 400,000 people, making it the second-largest employment generating sector after agriculture. However, standard of living and wages on an average have failed to ameliorate.

Picture this….an average miner starts his day at dawn and keeps digging until late evening, sieving through dust, grime and mud in the hopes of finding one precious stone. For this, the miner is provided one meal a day and a small wage, enough to fill neither his/her belly nor their wallet. If they get lucky and find a diamond, they sell it to their boss and get half the value. For a small rough diamond (like the one in the picture), this translates to receiving a meagre $26.

It is intriguing to observe how a country that is so generously endowed in resources is so poorly developed. Logically, more resources should mean a country can export more, generate employment and hence be richer, right? Not necessarily. This dissonance is best explained by the concept of ‘Resource Curse’ (or Paradox of Plenty), which states that countries endowed with a rich source of natural resources struggle to make effective use of them. Governments in these states respond ineffectively to public welfare needs and tend to experience higher rates of conflict, instability, corruption and lower rates of economic growth. History offers a plethora of examples of this including Angola, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Venezuela and Iraq, among several others.

In the case of Sierra Leone, lack of functioning institutions and competition over ownership seems to be at the core of the problem. Mining is not mechanized and highly unregulated. Additionally, corruption is endemic, contributing to an unsustainable parallel economy.  Changing this trend poses a chicken and egg problem: Should strong institutions that are transparent, regulated and fair be developed first so that the diamond industry can pick up? Or will revenue from diamonds eventually pave way for greater development and better institutions? Basically, the million-dollar question is how to escape resource curse and where do we start?

While these critical questions are being raised, diamond miners in Sierra Leone continue digging not just to find diamonds but to lift themselves out of poverty. Perhaps we should be thinking harder the next time we walk into a jewelry store and admire those shiny diamonds. The sparkly stones may have some dark beginnings afterall.

‘Kushe’ or ‘Hello’ was the first word I picked up in Krio, the most widely spoken language in Sierra Leone. In an attempt to show-off the little Krio that I had learnt, I greeted my colleagues with ‘Kushe’ and was stumped to receive a ‘Namaste’ in return!

That evening as the car radio blasted Justin Bieber and Beyonce songs, an old Bollywood song “Kya Kehna” came on. I watched in absolute wonder as the driver hummed the song and spoke about how Indian music is quite catchy and popular all across the country! Surprises kept flowing in as a man from Guinea engaged me in a 30-minute conversation in French on how Amitabh Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor should act in more films!

Not anticipating the Bollywood fanfare, I dug deeper to find out why, how and in what forms does India exert its influence in Sierra Leone. Turns out that among the foreign communities in Sierra Leone, 3 of them stand out distinctly: Europeans, Lebanese and Indians. While there is decent literature on the first 2, very little has been written about the Indian community, partly because they have been a much smaller group and did not spread all over the country like the rest.

From interacting with the locals, I learnt that the Indian community in Sierra Leone, and specifically in Kono district, is most actively engaged in the business of brewery and distillery production of alcohol. A lot of Indian businessmen were previously involved in the diamond trade prior to the civil war. When the war broke out in 1991, most fled the country and since then, the Lebanese traders have been leading the diamond business.

Perhaps the existence of an Indian community that has been long involved in trade could have paved way for the spread of Indian culture through mediums like films, music and cuisine. In modern parlance, this is called Soft power – a term coined by neo-liberal academician Joseph Nye of Harvard University to describe the ‘ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce, use force or give money as a means of persuasion’.  Since the term was first introduced in 1990, it has been increasingly used in the context of improving social and public perception through culture, sport, cuisine, art etc. Today, soft power is used almost as analogous with the power of culture.

Hence, it is possible to argue that India has been successfully capitalizing on its power of culture.  As of date, Sierra Leone imports close to $85 million worth of goods annually from India, making India the third largest import origin country after China ($236 million) and the United States ($90 million).  Given this, it is no surprise that TVS bikes from India are a common sight on the streets here.

Additionally, the fact that both countries share a colonial past and are members of the Commonwealth feeds into the perception of Soft Power, with India being seen as the success story.

Trying to understand Indian influence through the lens of ‘Soft Power’ raises some broader questions. What are the limits to soft power? And how do we know when it translates to tangible influence? Can soft power without hard power backing (through a strong military or robust economy) still be effective?

I hope to research further and find answers to these questions. Meanwhile, my lesson for now is: when someone says namaste, learn to ask in Krio “Do you watch Indian movies?”

Ebola. Diamonds. Civil War. Poverty.

The 4 words that first came to my mind as I learnt that my job would be taking me to Sierra Leone in West Africa. Sierra Leone remains among the world’s poorest countries in the world ranking 179 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index. Poverty remains widespread with more than 60% of the population living on less than US $1.25 a day, according to UNDP. Unemployment among youth stands at a staggering 70% and illiteracy levels remain high.

This small former British colony has been through several periods of turmoil. The 11-year bloody civil war fueled by ‘blood diamonds’ ended in 2002. The country was recovering gradually, averaging around 7% GDP growth annually for the past decade until the Ebola epidemic hit. Over 4,000 lives were lost, the country’s health systems were disrupted, and GDP shrank to 2% annually.

Given this context, I was quite unsure of what to expect while relocating to Sierra Leone. My uncertainty was amplified by the fact that I would be living in Kono district, which was 5 hours away from the capital, Freetown. Kono is Sierra Leone’s very own diamond district and one of the world’s largest uncut diamonds was recently discovered here. Despite the rich mineral deposits, the district fares quite poorly on most development indicators.

When I first reached Koidu city in Kono, things were as anticipated. Basic infrastructure like running water and electricity were scarce. Basic health facilities were lacking. Corruption and bribery were rampant. But that is not what surprised me the most.  What blew me away was the warmth with which outsiders like me were welcomed into the society and how effortless the integration seemed. Not only does the culture openly embrace outsiders but also emphasizes celebration and living life in the moment. From a philosophical and moral standpoint, it was fascinating to observe how despite lack of material wealth and comforts, people had found a way to remain happy, optimistic and hopeful.

Through this blog, my aim is to record my experiences as I continue travelling, living and working here and draw insights on a range of policy issues like aid dependence, resource curse, colonialism and institutions, cycle of economic under-development, white-man saviour complex, migration and corruption.  I hope to base my insights on secondary research and complement them with first-hand testimonies, interviews, and everyday observations. Wherever applicable, I’d also like to compare and contrast the African growth experience with other relevant case studies.

Enjoy reading and please feel free to share your comments and feedback!