Sierra Leone · Gemstone / Mineral / Mining
Not specifically documented under a standardized local term beyond general reference to "dry ground" mining (Krio usage)
The manual digging, transport, and water-sieving of alluvial soil to recover rough diamonds, practiced by an estimated 120,000 artisanal diggers across Sierra Leone's diamond-rich Kono and Kenema districts, where deposits were first discovered in 1930. Diamonds are found in three documented site types — swamps, hills or hard dry surface ("dry ground" mining), and riverbeds — each requiring the miner to dig and gather a specific ore-bearing soil layer using shovels, pickaxes, and metal buckets, transport it to a river or water source (sometimes an abandoned flooded pit), and sieve it by hand or shaker to separate heavier mineral deposits, including any rough diamonds, from lighter sediment. The craft is technically simple — requiring only a shovel and sieve, with no chemical processing — but physically demanding and increasingly unproductive as near-surface deposits deplete, forcing miners toward deeper, more capital-intensive extraction or alternative livelihoods such as agriculture. A named contemporary responsible-mining initiative, GemFair, works directly with artisanal diggers to formalize the trade and rehabilitate mined land back to agricultural use.
Risk level: Endangered · Not independently inscribed
The single-piece carving of black wooden helmet masks for the Sande (also called Bundu or Bondo) women's initiation society, practiced by Mende, Temne, Sherbro, Vai, Gola, and Bassa carvers across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Côte…
The hand-spinning, dyeing, and narrow-strip weaving of thick, heavy cotton cloth by Mende (and related Vai and Gola) weavers of Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia, using a tripod loom found almost exclusively in this region of West…
The tie-dyeing, stitch-resist, and wax-block-stamping of cotton cloth using natural indigo and kola-nut dye, practiced predominantly by Temne women centered on Makeni, northern Sierra Leone.
The hand-building of unglazed earthenware pottery by Limba potters of Bafodea Town, capital of the Wara Wara Bafodea Chiefdom in northern Sierra Leone, documented through direct academic fieldwork as having declined to the point of…
The Gotlandic limestone carving tradition — the working of the specific Gotlandic limestone (kalksten) whose particular fine-grained, slightly sandy texture made it the preferred material for medieval Swedish memorial stones (picture…
The hand-extraction of two distinct mineral products, red salt for human consumption and natron for animal feed, from two separate and specifically named salt flats in northern Chad, each worked exclusively by a different gender.
The Tinos marble carving tradition — the production of the distinctive Greek marble carvings from the white marble of Tinos island whose sculptors have supplied the Greek Orthodox church with carved marble iconostases, architectural…
The hand-excavation of diamond-bearing volcanic pipe rock at Colesberg Kopje, Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, using picks, shovels, and crowbars on small individually held claims -- collectively producing what is widely regarded as…
The carving of small sculptures and decorative objects from hardened volcanic lava specifically sourced on Fogo, an active volcanic island of Cape Verde and site of Pico do Fogo, the archipelago's principal volcano.
The inlaying of cut and polished semi-precious stones into white marble to form floral and geometric patterns, developed under the Mughal emperors and made famous by the Taj Mahal (built 1631–1648).