The war crimes trial of Liberian President Charles Taylor is taking some interesting twists and turns. The latest is that supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Mia Farrow will testify at his trial. They will address allegations that. Taylor gave Campbell an uncut diamond at a South African reception in 1997.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone granted a request by prosecutors to call Campbell and Farrow. The actress Carol White is also expected to join them on the stand. Their testimony is sought after by prosecutors, who are trying to prove that Taylor dealt in "blood diamonds" during a 1991–2002 civil war in Sierra Leone. Taylor is denying the allegations.

Thus far, prosecutors are claiming that Campbell doesn't want to get involved in the case, and that they've failed at trying to contact her in order to obtain her testimony. According to written documentation presented by Farrow, she said that Campbell told her that two or three men woke her up and "presented her with a large diamond which they said was from Charles Taylor."

Taylor is being charged with 11 counts of murder, rape, torture and sexual slavery, along with the use of child soldiers. An estimated 500,000 people were killed, and many of the atrocities were committed by children. The child soldiers were often drugged to desensitize them to the violence.

What is also rarely mentioned is that many of the weapons used to fight these wars were sold by brokers in the United States and Europe. The depth of the pain and suffering caused in many African countries is not only unthinkable, but it could have been prevented. Personally, I don't purchase diamonds, whether they are blood diamonds or not. In many cases, a diamond's origin has been masked, so we really don't know what we're buying.

As African Americans, we should be fully aware that American consumer purchasing power has, in many cases, led to the death and destruction of quite a few communities around the world. Rather than just enjoying our wealth and pretending that the rest of the world doesn't exist, perhaps we might choose to be a bit more conscientious.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.