by Seemi Aziz

The first book that had an impact on the discussion of diaspora was Diamond Boy by Michael Williams. This story is about Patson Moyo a 15-year-old living with his father, stepmother and sister in Zimbabwe. His father is a schoolteacher who believes in his profession with all his heart but the stepmother wants more financially. The search for ‘more’ takes them to the Marange diamond fields; a portion of which belongs to the stepmother’s brother.Here the family divides as the stepmother opts to stay with her brother’s large family of two wives and children while Patson and his father and sister are driven to live in tobacco sheds while they search for their fortune in a ‘girazi’ (a priceless stone) that would change their lives forever. In the process of finding their fortune, the government’s soldiers take over the mines and start a brutal take over of the place. He also ends up losing his father in the government takeover of the fields. His stepmother becomes a sexual toy for the general leading the charge. His sister is kidnapped and taken to Cape Town.

The children, who find valuable stones in Marange, find a way of hiding them and then transporting them to sell in markets. Patson becomes the leader of one of these groups of kids and does find three invaluable girazi but in the process is discovered by the general who want these stones for himself. He loses his leg in a minefield when he tries to run. He then realizes that he has to find his sister, as she is the only kin left. He leaves his greed behind and does not care anything about the stones and as soon as he is physically able he makes the terrible journey from the minefield to Cape Town to find his sister.

The setting of the story is against the backdrop of President Mugabe’s brutal regime in Zimbabwe. The relatively recent events of a discovery of the Marange diamond deposits in eastern region of Zimbabwe in 2006 are highlighted in this book.

Holly Johnson says, “human diaspora is not ‘natural’ but rather forced as part of horrific circumstances generated by other human beings who do not recognize the humanity of those they have displaced, mistreated, or killed.” Patson’s life is altered as he is forced to leave the comfort of the familiar urban Zimbabwe for the relatively unknown life in the rural diamond mines and later when he loses his leg and tries to flee and find his way to Cape Town. His good nature and pride and connections to his roots, makes him stronger and he ends up fighting for his sanity in the aftermath of losing his father and limb and his sister who is the only constant in his life. His support is his faith in the love that his family gave him, which makes him find his way home in another country. His hatred of his lost leg is another struggle that he overcomes. Ironically his three girazi are surgically and physically imbedded in the same half leg that he is painfully dragging along with him. In the aftermath of this movement, everything comes together and he settles in his new affluent life along with his sister in his new home. He ends up in the process of becoming a hybrid in his new existence.

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• Themes: Diamond Boy, Seemi Aziz
• Descriptors: Books & Resources, Student Connections, WOW Currents