And so Naomi Campbell has finally testified in Charles Taylor’s trial at the Hague. Crucial to the prosecution’s case is to link Taylor with raw blood diamonds that he commandeered as head of the State of Liberia and leader of a rebel cause in the neighboring Sierra Leone. The prosecution are alleging that Naomi was given raw uncut and unprocessed diamonds by Taylor. These diamonds were illegally or criminally acquired by Taylor. Taylor used his militia to commit crimes against humanity to extract diamonds from both Liberia and Sierra Leone.
And so Naomi says that she had never heard of Liberia and had never heard of Charles Taylor and she did not know who he was, at least prior to her meeting him in South Africa. This does not make sense to me. And then to make it even worse, she says that two men she had never met knocked on her door one night while in South Africa and gave her a pouch of some dirty looking stones, which she donated over to Nelson Mandela’s charity. This too does not seem to make sense at all. It is either she is lying or she’s deliberately trying to hide something.
So could someone tell me? How could a super model, of international stature, miss ever hearing of a country known as Liberia until 1997 when she is 40 years old or 30 years old? So she never read the news, never heard the news, and probably never had a client who could possibly have mentioned Africa or Liberia. This does not make sense to me. It it is true then I will have serious issues with her British secondary school education. Didn’t they show her a Map of the World?
And then when it comes to two strange men appearing on her door and delivering dirty stones, I find this story to be quite saucy to say the least. What is even dodgy is the time these people appeared-at midnight. So there is the international super model, she’s just had lunch or supper with the world’s famous people–Charles Taylor and Nelson Mandela among them. And then she retires all by herself to sleep and then suddenly in the early hours of the night or the morning, two strangers appear on her hotel room door, hand her a pouch and off they left. She does not care to check what was contained in the pouch, but goes back to sleep, and then the next morning she checks the pouch and voila, there are some purple dirty looking stones. To believe this story we will have to really believe that the life of super model is one miserable life almost reminiscent of a mob. Strange men, giving strange gifts to people they have never known or met.
What about if she just admits that it was His Excellency himself, who donated some of his personal raw diamonds to her. We do not need to know why Taylor could have been overtaken by such an act of benevolence. He may just have donated something to her out of love or out of a desire to help a fellow Black person. At that level Naomi would be able to convince me that Taylor’s act of kindness was simply an act of trying to help a sister out. To help her fulfill her fantasies for real raw good stuff and diamonds are that kind of thing!
At least in this case it is not she, who is in the dock. She was just called to testify. In the Zambian case of the People Vs Chiluba, Mrs Regina Chiluba was actually convicted by a court of law for accepting a gift from Mr. Frederick Chiluba. Mr. Chiluba gave Regina a Television Set which the State proved had been stolen by Mr. Chiluba. But instead of arresting President Chiluba for it, they instead arrested his wife. Naomi Campbell should actually thank God that instead of getting arrested for possession of these raw diamonds, she is only been called to testify not as an accused, but as a witness.
Give me some raw diamonds Ms Campbell, I love them too. But wait a bit do it somewhere else and not in Zambia!
