"Blood Diamond"s are Not a Girl's Best Friend

A few days ago I watched “Blood Diamond,” a movie about diamonds that are mined from African war zones and sold to finance the horrific Sierra Leone Civil War during the 1990’s. Although the film seemed willing to go to great lengths to call attention to the plight of black (African) people, it seemed as though it ignored the struggle of black women.

For instance, the movie featured 3 main characters; a white male mercenary named Danny Archer, a black man named Solomon Vandy, and a white female Journalist named Maddy Bowen. Interestingly enough there was really only one black woman with a speaking part throughout the entire movie and that was Jassie Vandy, Solomon Vandy’s wife, and her time on screen was incredibly brief. It basically consisted of her screaming out in terror for Vandy to come save her, which portrayed to the audience the weak and helpless nature of black women in African society. In addition, the extreme extent to which black women lacked a voice in this movie illustrated to the audience the degree to which they were marginalized in Africa during that time period.