Mmegi

Mogae’s stoic fight for natural diamonds

Festus Mogae
Festus Mogae

For nearly two decades, whenever the global diamond industry came under attack, one voice repeatedly emerged from Botswana to defend it with calm precision and moral clarity. That voice belonged to Festus Gontebanye Mogae.

Long before lab-grown diamonds disrupted the market and long before younger consumers began questioning the relevance of natural stones, Mogae was already fighting a different battle, one that threatened not merely diamond sales, but Botswana’s entire development story.

To understand why Mogae fought so fiercely for natural diamonds, one must return to the chaos of the 1990s, when diamonds became entangled with some of Africa’s bloodiest wars.

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