Ambatondrazaka has been abuzz lately, with full hotels, newly opened offices, and foreign faces everywhere. The reason? Newly discovered sapphires about 50 km southeast, near the town of Didy.
The changes were subtle at first, but over the past few days one can see them everywhere. I bought a soda at a corner store on Friday and by Sunday it was empty and repainted. The owner closed down because she was offered about $600 a month in rent for the space. The rent should not have been more than a hundred dollars or so. Paying money like that, it's no wonder so many people are closing up shop here.
Fortunately, it appears that more successful businesses are remaining open, at least for now. A friend of mine owns a hotel restaurant, and over the past week has added a covered outdoor bar and seating area. Several of the gem buyers, almost all Sri Lankan, are staying at his hotel indefinitely. Eating lunch there today, I witnessed a trio of Frenchmen approached by a Malagasy man with stones. They examined them for several minutes right at their table before politely declining to buy them.
The road to Didy is very bad, so big tractors with long, open trailers are the most common way to get people and supplies there from Ambatondrazaka. The street where these tractors depart used to be a very quiet place, though it is now common to see four or five tractors loading up at once.
The majority of stone buyers have opened office fronts close to this makeshift tractor station. They are freshly whitewashed buildings, clean and newly painted inside, with one Sri Lankan buyer sitting behind a desk. Two or three empty chairs are ready for anyone who stops by with stones for sale. The reason that so many come from Sri Lanka is the long history of Sapphire mining and trading there. As one buyer told me, Sri Lankans have been in the Sapphire business for generations, so they know it well. And though most of the buyers are Sri Lankan, there are French and Malagasy buyers here as well (though they haven't opened offices).
Not only do the buyers need office space, but they also need places to live. Some are still staying at hotels, but many have already found semi-permanent residences. I've talked to people who have been approached by buyers looking to rent houses. As with the office spaces, incredibly high rents are offered for housing to get people to acquiesce. A family may rent a cheap house elsewhere and rent out their own house to buyers, making a healthy profit from the deal.
The changes in Didy are most likely even more noticeable than here in Ambatondrazaka. I've heard that rice is now 900 Ariary per cup there, whereas it was only 300 not too long ago. Beer has gone up to 7,000 Ariary a bottle, while it remains around 2,000 here. Didy has probably seen a huge influx of Malagasy migrants striking out for stones, and the supply of goods still hasn't caught up with the rapid rise in demand.
Another potentially troubling aspect of this stone rush is that the mining is occurring in a protected forest area. The head of the region apparently sent in the police to try to stop this, but who would expect that to work? The only result is that the cost of business now includes paying off officers so mining can continue. How much forest will be disturbed by mining activities is still unknown because the extent of the area with sapphires is still unknown.
And the worst part of this entire charade is that it is another instance of Africa's resources being exploited by foreigners who take the vast majority of the profits. The previous president, Marc Ravalomanana, banned the export of unprocessed stones to try to remedy this problem. But when he was ousted in a coup in 2009, foreign investment in processing here in Madagascar dried up. So the export ban was lifted in 2010, and almost all the sapphires being found in Didy will be sent abroad to be cut and polished.
It is still very early, so it's hard to tell exactly what the long term changes to Ambatondrazaka and Didy will be. Some of the buyers are said to be prepared to stay here as long as stones are being found, which could be several years. And it isn't change itself that worries me, but the unsustainable influx of money that has begun. Will people invest that money, or just spend it? Will they invest it in businesses catering to the gem buyers, which will then go under if the mine gets tapped out? I'm apprehensive to say the least. But, forever the optimist, I'm hoping nothing too bad happens to the city I now call home.
