Diamonds can kill you - a tale of Namibian ghost town.

Long, long time ago, behind seven mountains and seven rivers Johnny Coleman changed his life trajectory due to the sand storm, and decided to settle in small mining village stuck between Atlantic Ocean and hostile desert. Now, it was pretty quiet town and no special events occurred  until came Ze Germans. They would make Kolmanskop the Desert Dream Town where rainbows and unicorns would live happily ever after in the sand dunes. 

Stones were August Stauch’s particular hobby, which he’d combine with his regular job as a Railway Pioneer. He’d ask his employees to bring him whatever they could find out there. One day, someone would bring him a diamond. Our August was no spring chicken, so he kept it a secret until he was able to collect as much diamonds as he could before registering his claims. This is how the diamond rush started in Kolmanskop in the early 1900’s.

Theater, casino, bowling room, ballroom, ice factory.  Caviar, champagne and wines imported from the finest Cape estates. Marbles from Italy. Steel constructions from Germany. A tram taxi would bring ice and groceries to your doorstep every single day. Although the distances were not bigger than 50 meters local matrons were true ladies of leisure. They wouldn't walk for it.  Fresh water was shipped from Cape Town for the merry inhabitants, while salty ocean water was used for the local swimming pool. There was a gymnast team and acrobats. The royal blood of German aristocracy would send a correspondence to raise the spirits of the hard-working children of the Mother Land. Whatever you could wish for – you could ask – a clever Shop Owner would order it using all her skills available. From all over the world. All in the middle of the sandy desert.   

Local people were hired as diamond seekers. They’d work with 24 hours rotation shifts (of twelve plus twelve) and be given a ‘contract’ that did not allow them to leave precious premises before 6 months would be due. They worked with their mouths covered (in order to avoid temptation of swallowing the diamond). Hospital’s X-Ray machine was brought – against sensible belief – not for  health reasons – but to find diamonds hidden in the cupboards of your body. Before leaving you’d be given a laxative in order to make sure that no stones were attached. There was as much as 1000 kilograms of stones exported from Kolmanskop at that time.

It seemed that the diamond hunt would never stop. But it did. After the First World War the diamond fever would break. The resources were scarce and they’d find new ones by the Orange River. Oh irony, the same river that would wash the diamonds straight into the desert sands millions of years ago. The town was abandoned. By 1954 there was no single soul living there. Our brave August, after trying his luck with series of unfortunate investments, died in poverty. 

Desert sands colonized the Wonder Town and made its ownership claims. The marble floors would be washed away by the sand rivers. Windows would be broken by the sand storms. The wind would demolish wooden floors and steel constructions. Sand would refurnish the interiors. 

The only thing you hear now in Kolmanskop is wind and squeaky noises of the function-less domestic objects. That and the sounds of the cameras as well as  German speaking guides walking dear tourists through the graveyards of their own colonial past.