When Diamonds Go Bust: Contextualising Livelihood Changes in Rural Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, diamond mining has a long and dynamic history. The sector has brought both prosperity and problems to the country, its ever‐changing status giving rise to dynamic situations. Recently, the artisanal diamond mining sector has been heavily affected by the turbulent period that the financial world experienced over the past couple of years. Its stagnation has forced many artisanal diggers to secure their livelihoods in other economic sectors, such as gold mining and commercial (cocoa and coffee) farming. Taking this diamond crisis as its perspective, this article analyses some of the changes Sierra Leone's miners consciously make with regard to their livelihood provisioning. More precisely, the dynamics and social construction within and between the different opportunities they choose from are examined. This article focuses on gold and diamond mining, thereby taking gender differences and the way money is labelled and its value constructed as its central argument. The notion of co‐habitation will be used as a theoretical tool to emphasise that places are not single and bounded spaces, but rather areas of intertwining actors and activities, not only at one specific moment, but also over time.