At the Wakanda Forever premiere in LA last week, Lupita Nyong’o wore De Beers jewelry. I didn’t think much of it, because most celebrities borrow jewelry specifically for red carpets and it’s not news. But it looks like that red carpet was the announcement of Lupita’s new brand ambassadorship with De Beers. She’s the face of the jewelry company’s new “Where It Begins” campaign. It looks like this is a very specific quid pro quo – De Beers is a company famously built on exploitation and colonization of the African continent, and now that have an African woman as the face of the company, but in exchange, Lupita got them to support a host of issues near and dear to her heart.
As part of the partnership, she will star in the brand’s new campaign — ‘De Beers: Where It Begins’ — which tells the story of the global luxury brand. Through the campaign, Nyong’o is followed as she discovers a rough diamond and watches it magically transform into magnificent jewellery. Shot by renowned Australian photographer and director Lachlan Bailey, the campaign will launch globally with integrated media activations across multiple touchpoints on November 3.
Likewise, through the partnership Nyong’o will support De Beers’ ‘Building Forever’ commitment, which aims to advance women and girls where its diamonds are discovered. In particular, De Beers will work with Nyong’o in pursuit of the brand’s public goals to engage 10,000 girls in STEM, support 10,000 women entrepreneurs and invest at least $10 million across southern Africa to achieve these goals by 2030.
“With her rare magnetism and elegance, Lupita Nyong’o is a testament to the power of boundless possibilities. Embodying modern and responsible luxury, Lupita is an inspiration for all of us. De Beers is proud that Lupita has joined our Building Forever commitment to people and the planet and we stand with her as she embarks on an exciting chapter in her career,” said Marc Jacheet, De Beers CEO, brands.
Nyong’o added: ”I’m honored to be the first global ambassador for De Beers. This campaign brings to life the transformative power that I feel when I wear De Beers’ diamond creations, and the pride in knowing where they come from and the good they do. Even more importantly, my partnership with De Beers allows me to extend my advocacy for women and girls around the world.”
I’ve seen some criticism already for Lupita, like how could she partner with a company responsible for so much damage to Africa for more than a century? But let me come at a different way: why is Lupita being held accountable so much more than a white brand ambassador ever would be? Lupita’s not stupid, I believe she went into this partnership with her eyes open, and she had specific goals about getting De Beers to fund certain programs. It’s ridiculous to assume that Lupita is unaware of the damage De Beers has done, just as it would be ridiculous to hold her accountable for, what? Not getting De Beers to pay reparations? It looks like she *is* getting them to pay reparations, only they’re not calling it that.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images and De Beers’ IG.
Wait-diamonds? I think the criticism is warranted, with DeBeers especially. Haven’t had enough coffee this morning yet to explain all the reasons why her choice is tone deaf, so here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers
🤔😖
De Armas is also an ambassador, but we’ve seen her true colours with the Marilyn fiasco already. My expectations for her are in the mud.
I’m hard on Lupita because she should know better. Because she is being used by racist, murderous, capitalists to wash away their multitude of sins.
De Beers should not exist. Diamond mining should not exist, not as it does now. The mines and their profits should be going to the people. Not to De Beers. Not to De Armas. not to Nyongo.
There are no concessions that are worth supporting them, not unless the concession include the workers from the ground up.
“Because she is being used by racist, murderous, capitalists to wash away their multitude of sins”
This.
First — I agree with everything you said. There is no such thing as a conflict-free diamond; they are all blood diamonds, and it’s an atrocity that should not be permitted to continue.
BUT — I also believe she knows this, and I’m not just saying this because she is one of my goddesses. I believe her entire PR machine also knows this as well.
Done correctly, this could be a strategic choice to hold de Beers more accountable, draw more attention to their ethics code, and ensure they’re engaged in some level of retribution for the past. I also believe Lupita has the currency to cause a ruckus if they are found to be indirectly supporting warlords/terrorism/trafficking — not just withdrawing her partnership but vocalizing why.
So while having her serve as a brand ambassador gives de Beers much-needed legitimacy, it also puts a more powerful microscope on them.
Don’t eff– with my goddess!
Hey, a small aside, not all diamonds are blood diamonds. Pretty sure the mining companies in Canada aren’t murdering for ill-gotten gains. There has been a lot of work with indigenous cultures, environmental agencies and the local/provincial governments to get those mines into operation. I know a lot of people who have worked at the various diamond mines; mining is a highly regulated industry in Canada. Source; me, I work in this industry. I am a Canadian geologist.
Also, moissanite is very cool and can also meet most diamond-related needs.
Ana de Armas is not an ambassador…..
She is, for their natural diamond council BS.
Natural diamonds meaning mined, she’s pushing against lab produced diamonds that are conflict free.
Not anymore. Lily James is their new ambassador.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it when I heard about it but I agree she’s getting some reparations. But I think De Beers should be doing more.
$10 million dollars over eight years is less than a rounding error for DeBeers. They can easily invest ten times that into the communities they have exploited.
Look: we can’t excuse every single bad thing a celebrity with any racialized or minority identity does because some other hypothetical white person would have gotten away with it.
She’s being held more responsible because SHE IS FROM KENYA and should know better.
Ideally we would all care about everything but people are expected to know and care a bit more about injustices they are closer to. There you have no excuse.
I don’t expect Lupita to not know about how Japanese culture is Orientalized I don’t think it’s crazy for an African to be very cautious about jumping into bed with De Beers.
“Look: we can’t excuse every single bad thing a celebrity with any racialized or minority identity does because some other hypothetical white person would have gotten away with it.”
No, but it corresponds to the idea that a lot of white people should be listening to the conversation instead of engaging more than POC voices would be in this.
De Beers should be paying reparations and improve working conditions in their mining sites.
My thing with the criticism of Lupita and other public figure is we can’t expect them to be radical in their activism. Getting large corporations to funds programs supporting communities is as far as their activism can go. Let’s be realistic.
Agreed. De Beers – and the diamond industry in general – is not going anywhere. If she is invested in the cause, how can she BEST support it? This seems like the wisest move possible.
She refused to be in woman king due to its colonial association yet De Beers is more palatable for her 👀… my criticism is due to those contrasting choices so near to each other shows she doesn’t stand for anything rather the dollar since De Beers was already doing that in Southern Africa already 🤷🏽♀️
Where does this affirmation come from ? I see it repeated as the reason she didn’t do the Woman king movie but never saw an interview of her saying this.
After Meghan’s experience in the Royal Family, I think we need to stop giving these historically racist institutions any benefit of the doubt. They can fund those programs without Lupita’s face fronting their campaigns.
But I know Lupita isn’t making the kind of money white actresses with her experience are getting, so I don’t blame the hustle. But they better be paying her tens of millions for this nonsense.
I hope the people here who are criticizing her are actually people living in a country in Africa because otherwise you need to sit down. It seems like, you know, Africans should decide whether and how to work with Debeers. Capitalism isn’t going away. No pure ideological system works. Uncontrolled capitalism is bad, so is uncontrolled socialism, communism, whatever. And a woman from Africa should be able to make her own decisions about how to help her people in the face of uncontrolled capitalism. I’m happy to boycott all diamonds, but I don’t see how I get a vote on the morality of her choice here.
Exactly why I’m staying quiet and reading. I know nothing about diamonds, where they come from, how they’re mined, bought and sold. I had no idea of the depths of exploitation. But of course, why not? The Anglo Company? Really?
Let’s be honest, she’s doing it for the money, honestly I’d do the same, though, would they go under if she refused to partner with them, no.
10 million by 2030 is laughable though, they make 6 billion a year in profit (from a quick google search), 10 mil is not changing anything!
Agree with Kaiser that Lupita is an intelligent woman with an activist’s heart. I am sure that she thought long and hard about this brand ambassadorship and on the whole decided that the visibility and funding for causes that she cares about was worth it, although $10 million over 8 years is not nearly enough. That
is on De Beers snd not Lupita, though. Others may disagree with her choice and assessment, and question De Beers’ motives in giving such a small amount, but there is no evidence that Lupita has ever been so greedy as to accept this ambassadorship just for the money.
Also, I have been getting interested in lab grown diamonds lately. They say that many are indistinguishable from natural diamonds to the naked eye. But there are still choices to be made in the environmental impact.
I actually think this speaks to her need for money as much as anything. Black actors are still horrifically underpaid in Hollywood and streaming doesn’t pay residuals. I wish she’d gotten DeBeers to go in for $100m but I think she did pretty well overall.
I think these ambassadorships are ridiculous, they’re doing ads. It’s advertising.
Diamonds are one of the world’s biggest scams. They have no inherent value and are the height of decadence. De Beers has been running this scam for a century, why are people still falling for it? There is no way to be sure you’re not buying a blood diamond unless it’s lab grown. She made a choice, it is what it is. But I don’t love it.
Buy Canadian, that’s how you’ll know. We put polar bears on our diamonds, along with certificate numbers.
@Marguerita After a friend recommended them, i bought some Moissanite earrings and love them (and really love the prices)!