The transporter, the agitator, and the kamanguista: Qualia and the in/visible materiality of diamonds

This article examines the qualitative dimensions invoked and procured by smugglers, traders, and agitators in events of transporting and trading diamonds in Angola. The experience of qualities generally attributed to diamonds is exhibited and embodied in indexical and iconic relation to organized semiotic qualisigns of speed and slowness, secure and insecure bodies, mobility and immobility. In other words, ‘qualia’ orient objects and people by displaying a connection to the experience of diamonds’ qualities of visibility and hiddenness, and allow in turn for the articulation of disparate social processes implicating both the materiality of carbon-based stones and the social relations inscribed in the labor of extraction and exchange.