Ron Lindeman Peace Bird – Live songs at the Oostvaarders Singer-songwriter Event August 15th, 2021
August 31, 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