Ron Lindeman Peace Bird – Live songs at the Oostvaarders Singer-songwriter Event August 15th, 2021

Last Sunday August 15th, 2021 I organized the Oostvaarders Singer-songwriter Event at the Nature Expercience Center at the nature reserve the Oostvaardersplassen. Five different Singer-songwriters sang and played their own original songs. This is a song I played. It’s called Peace Bird. It’s about an African artist called Gonçalo Mabunda who was born on January 1, 1975 in Maputo, Mozambique. He lived through the civil war in Mozambique. When he was a child he was proud of his country but during the war he saw death and destruction. He became an artist. In his art Gonçalo Mabunda uses Kalashnikovs, rockets, pistols, and shell casing which he saws into pieces in order to make sculptures and other artworks out of the deconstructed weapons. By turning weapons into lifelike figures, Mabunda literally turns death into life. He made a sculpture of a bird figure out of parts from guns which he called Peace Bird. It symbolizes Freedom and Peace after the civil war. This world needs more Freedom and Peace!

 

Peace bird

( inspired by the artwork by Dr. Gonçalo Armando Mabunda / Tropenmuseum Amsterdam / 2003 )

 

Bird, Bird

Bird of Paradise

Bird so high up in the sky

Sailing the sky

Looking down on me

 

I walked this land

Always so proudly

When I was a child

And lifted my mind so easy

So high up in the skies

Where peaceful birds fly

 

When I was a man I watched so many

Innocent people die

I thought my mind would leave my body

Searching everywhere for the why

 

On the wide and windy plains

On the rocky slopes of mountains high

Where truth means life

And a lie could make you die

I could not find any answers

On the quest for the why

 

Once I washed my hands with water

From the clearest creek

Once I sat quietly alongside

The green river bank

Till the bodies floated by

And blood colored the water red

All I wanted was peace in my heart

Tranquility in my soul

 

All I wanted was the beauty of life

All I wanted was a free mind

Freed from the horrors in life

As free as birds can fly

 

Bird, bird

Bird of War

Bird of Prey

Spread your wings and change your flight

Bird, Bird

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Peace

 

Peace arose after the hatred

Like a Phoenix from the ashes

Rising above the smoke

Of all these burned down houses

And all the rotted corpses

 

When the cannon thunder silenced

And the gun barrels were molten

And the rifles sawn to pieces

And the bullets lay forgotten

 

Then the artist’s hands recreated

Violence and hatred

Into a symbol of peace

This Bird of Peace

 

Peace in my heart

Peace in my mind

Peace in my soul

Such a dark bad world

Turn it into a haven of light

Let peace take its flight

Through the darkness of the night

And when the world awakens

In the early morning sun

The evil spell is broken

The Bird of Peace

Has won

 

Bird, Bird

Peace Bird

Fly across this land

Like a Bird of Paradise

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes

This Bird of Peace

This Bird of Peace

Peace Bird

Peace Bird

Peace Bird

 

Lyrics and music by Ron Lindeman

October 2016