Diamonds, risk and insurance practices in British Africa, with an emphasis on the Gold Coast and Tanganyika

Abstract

ABSTRACT The literature on diamond mining in colonial Africa has focused more on labour, production and cartel-style price fixing than on how theft threatened the wealth generated from this industry. To mediate diamond loss, companies subscribed to financial insurance. This article introduces security-as-insurance to complement the received meaning of (financial) insurance and invites scholars to see security-as-insurance, risk, and value as interlocked. Drawing on sources from Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya, this article argues that once diamonds were imbued with financial value, the distribution of this value was competed for via claims over diamondiferous lands, diamond stealing, and consequently counter-theft security practices plus trans-empire (financial) insurance intended to protect the stones against risk. Overall, this article historically traces how diamonds gained value in Africa, the competing claims over diamonds following discoveries in commercial quantities, and the insurance practices enforced to protect against losses, particularly via theft in colonial Ghana and Tanzania.