A DIAMONDIS FOREVER
The Manufactured Desire That Built an Empire of Blood and Brilliance
The Soil Ran Red
1867–1888In 1867, a 15-year-old Boer boy named Erasmus Jacobs found a pretty pebble near the Orange River. That pebble was a 21-carat diamond, and its discovery would transform South Africa from colonial backwater to the most brutally exploited territory in Africa.
The Kimberley diamond rush began immediately. Within two years, 50,000 prospectors descended on claims barely larger than living rooms. The digging was done almost entirely by Black African workers, lured from their lands by colonial taxes that could only be paid in wages.
What emerged was not a gold rush of independent miners striking it rich. It was a system of industrial exploitation. Black workers were housed in prison-like compounds, strip-searched daily to prevent "theft" of stones, forbidden from leaving the mine premises for months at a time.
The Big Hole at Kimberley—eventually one mile wide and 1,500 feet deep—was dug entirely by hand. The death toll was never properly recorded.
"Into this chaos stepped a sickly young Englishman named Cecil Rhodes, who understood immediately that the real wealth wasn't in digging—it was in controlling who could dig.
— Historical narrative
Cecil John Rhodes
The Empire Builder
- Arrived in Kimberley age 18 (1871)
- Began buying claims while still at Oxford
- Founded De Beers Mining Company (1880)
- Would eventually control 90% of world diamond production
"I would annex the planets if I could."
Young Rhodes at the mines, thin and ambitious, already calculating
The Man Who Would Be King
1880–1902Cecil Rhodes did not want to be rich. He wanted to be God.
His ambition went beyond diamonds—he envisioned British rule "from Cape to Cairo," the entire African continent as an Anglo-Saxon possession. Diamonds were merely the means.
"Pure philanthropy is very well, but philanthropy plus five percent is a good deal better.
— Cecil Rhodes
In 1880, he formed De Beers Mining Company, named after the farming brothers whose land sat above the richest deposits. His enemy was Barney Barnato, a Jewish entrepreneur who controlled the neighboring Kimberley Central mine. For nearly a decade, they battled for supremacy.
In 1888, Rhodes won. He bought Barnato's entire operation for £5,338,650—a single cheque, the largest sum ever written at the time. Barnato received a De Beers directorship. He would later go insane and throw himself from a ship.
But Rhodes understood something crucial: diamonds had no inherent scarcity. Unlike gold, which had limited deposits, diamonds were everywhere. If they all reached the market, prices would collapse. The value of diamonds was entirely artificial.
So Rhodes created artificial scarcity. De Beers didn't just mine diamonds—it controlled how many reached the market. The company hoarded stones in London vaults, releasing just enough to maintain prices.
It was the most successful cartel in history.
Barney Barnato
The Man Who Sold Everything
- Rhodes's rival who built Kimberley Central
- Sold to Rhodes for record sum (1888)
- Mental breakdown within years
- Died by suicide, jumping from ship (1897)
"I'll never be the same again."
Barnato in formal dress, eyes already haunted
"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.
— Cecil Rhodes
The Monopoly Machine
1902–1938Cecil Rhodes died in 1902, but his machine survived him.
A young German immigrant named Ernest Oppenheimer arrived in Kimberley to represent a diamond trading firm. By 1929, he controlled De Beers. The Oppenheimer family would maintain control for nearly a century.
Ernest perfected Rhodes's cartel into something unprecedented: a global distribution system that gave De Beers control not just over mining, but over every step of the diamond pipeline.
De Beers controlled every step
The Central Selling Organization (CSO) in London became the world's diamond gatekeeper. Ten times a year, selected dealers were invited to "sights"—carefully assembled boxes of rough diamonds.
You took the box at the price offered, or you were never invited back. No negotiation. No inspection beforehand. Total submission or exile.
By the 1930s, De Beers had total supply control—but no demand. Depression-era America had little interest in luxury stones. Only 10% of American engagement rings contained diamonds. Other gemstones were just as popular.
"Common sense tells us that the only way to increase the value of diamonds is to make them scarce.
— Ernest Oppenheimer
Ernest Oppenheimer
The Architect of Total Control
- German-Jewish immigrant who came to represent trading firm
- Took control of De Beers by 1929
- Created Central Selling Organization
- Expanded monopoly to distribution, not just mining
Oppenheimer at his desk, the patient architect of monopoly
Manufacturing Desire
1938–1960In 1938, De Beers faced a crisis. Despite total supply control, demand was collapsing.
De Beers hired N.W. Ayer, a Philadelphia advertising agency, with an unusual assignment: Don't advertise De Beers. Don't advertise specific diamonds. Instead, change the meaning of diamonds in American culture.
Create the desire, then own the supply.
"We are dealing with a problem in mass psychology."
Frances Gerety, a young copywriter who would never marry, was assigned the account. In 1947, struggling with a deadline, she scribbled four words:
A Diamond is Forever
Those four words did something extraordinary. They linked diamonds to eternal love—implying that anything less was temporary, cheap, insufficient. They made diamonds not a luxury but a necessity.
The campaign went far beyond a slogan. De Beers planted stories about celebrity engagements. They sent lecturers to college campuses. They loaned diamonds to Hollywood—Marilyn Monroe singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" wasn't an accident; it was marketing.
1938
of American brides received diamond rings
1965
of American brides received diamond rings
A tradition invented within a generation—then made to feel eternal.
Frances Gerety
The Woman Who Wrote Forever
- N.W. Ayer copywriter assigned De Beers account
- Created 'A Diamond is Forever' slogan (1947)
- Worked on the campaign for over 25 years
- Never married, never received a diamond engagement ring
Gerety at her typewriter, architect of a tradition she never joined
The Two-Month Rule
1960–1990Having convinced America that diamonds were necessary, De Beers faced another problem: how much should men spend?
In the 1980s, N.W. Ayer invented the answer:
This wasn't tradition. It wasn't economics. It was pure invention—a number designed to maximize spending while maintaining purchase rates.
The genius was framing it as a question of love. Advertisements implied that spending less meant loving less.
"Isn't two months' salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever?
— De Beers Advertisement, 1980s
But here's what De Beers never advertised: diamonds have no resale value. The moment you leave the jewelry store, your diamond loses 50% of its value.
This wasn't accident—it was design. De Beers needed to prevent a secondary market. If people sold diamonds freely, supply would increase and prices would fall.
So De Beers created the mystique of keeping diamonds "forever"—never selling, passing down as heirlooms. The slogan was economics disguised as sentiment.
Blood Diamonds
1990–2003Content Warning
This chapter contains descriptions of war crimes, including references to amputations, child soldiers, and civilian casualties. These events are historically documented but deeply disturbing.
The Unraveling
2000–2015The monopoly that Rhodes built and the Oppenheimers perfected began crumbling in the 1990s—not from competition, but from exposure.
Australia's Argyle mine refused to join the De Beers system. Russia's state diamond company began selling directly. Canadian mines bypassed the CSO entirely.
In 2001, De Beers agreed to plead guilty to US price-fixing charges, paying $10 million. The company had been locked out of direct US operations since 1945 antitrust rulings.
The Oppenheimer family, sensing change, began extracting themselves. In 2011, they sold their 40% stake to Anglo American for $5.1 billion.
A family dynasty that began in 1902 ended not with a battle, but with a strategic retreat.
"The world changed. We changed with it.
— Nicky Oppenheimer, 2011
Nicky Oppenheimer
The Last Oppenheimer
- Grandson of Ernest, inherited control
- Oversaw decline from 90% to 40% market share
- Sold family stake for $5.1 billion
Nicky Oppenheimer in modern office, the elegant ending of an era
The End of Forever
2015–PresentThe final irony: De Beers spent a century convincing the world that diamonds were rare and precious. Now technology has made them common.
Lab-grown diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to mined diamonds. Even trained gemologists cannot tell them apart without specialized equipment. They cost 70-90% less.
They're also, inarguably, more ethical. No mining. No environmental devastation. No blood.
Natural Diamond
- Billions of years to form
- Mining required
- Environmental impact
- ~$15,000 for 1 carat
Lab Diamond
- Weeks to create
- No mining
- Minimal footprint
- ~$1,500 for 1 carat
At first, De Beers dismissed lab diamonds as "fake." By 2018, the company surrendered—launching its own lab diamond brand at commodity-level pricing.
The mythology is fracturing. Young consumers don't believe diamonds are rare— because they're not. They don't believe spending more equals loving more—because it doesn't.
"A Diamond is Forever" was the most successful advertising slogan ever written. But forever is a long time. And the forever De Beers invented may not survive the generation that can simply make their own diamonds.
The question isn't which diamond is real. The question is whether the story was ever true.
Sources & Further Reading
- Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? — The Atlantic (1982)
- The Diamond Empire — PBS Frontline Documentary
- Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa — Martin Meredith
- The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds — Tom Zoellner
- Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Path of the World's Most Precious Stones — Greg Campbell
- De Beers and Beyond: The History of the International Diamond Cartel — Debora Spar, Harvard Business School
- The Kimberley Process — Official Documentation
- Global Witness Blood Diamonds Campaign
- Lab-Grown Diamonds: A Review — GIA (Gemological Institute of America)
- The Rise and Fall of the De Beers Diamond Monopoly — Economist
This narrative was fact-checked against peer-reviewed sources, historical archives, and investigative journalism. The story of the diamond industry is extensively documented by historians, economists, and human rights organizations.