the newcomers, fostered by distrust of food raids and other conflicts over land. This paper reflects critically on the transformational impacts the recent Ebola epidemic has had in diamond-rich areas of rural Sierra Leone. as they became increasingly desperate, or the crew of the St. It focuses specifically on the country's ‘diggers’, a sizable group of labourers who occupy the bottom of the country's artisanal diamond mine production pyramid. Based upon research conducted in the diamond-producing localities of Kenema and Kono, the paper argues how, in sharp contrast to the gloomy picture painted in the literature about their existences and struggles, diggers exhibited considerable resilience during the Ebola crisis. Their diversified livelihood portfolios proved to be effective survival strategies and buffers against the shocks and stresses brought about by lengthy periods of quarantine, and during times when mobility was restricted by the government in a bid to prevent the spreading of the disease. Drawing inspiration from the resilience literature, the paper captures the essence of these survival strategies, which should be viewed as latest reshuffling and expansion of diggers' rural livelihood portfolios. Policymakers and donors have yet to embrace fully these changes in a country where the Ebola recovery period promises to be lengthy and at a time when fresh, locally-informed rural development solutions are in short supply.Ī decade ago, Maconachie and Binns (2007) published a paper in the Journal of Rural Studies which highlighted the links between artisanal diamond mining and farming in rural Sierra Leone. 1967 the Boards financial position had become so desperate. Using both new and historical data, the paper drew attention to how tens of thousands of the country's rural families engage simultaneously in both activities, transferring finances and labour from one to the other, depending on the circumstances faced. and the cooperatives and the consequences of the diamond rush of the. Since its publication, a host of papers (see e.g. Hilson, 2011 Kamlongera, 2013 Pijpers, 2014) have emerged which report similar findings from elsewhere across sub-Saharan Africa. These studies confirm that, despite being overlooked almost entirely in the development studies literature in the 1980s and 1990s, the links between agriculture and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech mineral extraction and processing – are deeply-rooted in all corners of sub-Saharan Africa, and that economically, the latter is the region's most important rural nonfarm activity. This body of literature has provided a broad conceptual overview of ASM's place in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as demonstrated convincingly that for millions of the region's rural families, the sector is an integral segment of their fluid livelihoods portfolios, which ‘adjust’ and respond to changing circumstances.
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