IN FEBRUARY last year President Mugabe announced that the eight mining companies operating in the Marange diamond fields in the east of the country would be nationalised, claiming that the companies had ‘robbed′ the country of its mineral wealth.

Since 2006 when the surface alluvial diamonds were ‘discovered′ in Marange, the massive wealth generated by these small stones has caused havoc. The experience of Marange over the past decade is an important lens on Zimbabwe′s tortured politics and economy in this period.