The ''Tree of Life'' is a sculpture created by four artists in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. It was commissioned and then installed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 2005. It was built from the surrender of 600,000 weapons that were converted into art following an initiative started by Bishop

Dinis Sengulane Dinis Salomão Sengulane (born 5 March 1946) is a Mozambican Anglican priest. He was the Anglican Bishop of Lebombo, Maputo, Mozambique, from 1976 to 2014. He had an important role in the end of the Mozambican Civil War in 1992 and helped with t ...

Description

The sculpture was created by four artists, Kester, Hilario Nhatugueja, Fiel dos Santos and Adelino Serafim Maté in

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

, as part of a co-operative called ''Associação Núcleo de Arte'' in

. The scheme was created by the Mozambican Christian Council and supported by

Christian Aid Christian Aid is the relief and development agency of 41 Christian (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) churches in the UK and Ireland, and works to support sustainable development, eradicate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster ...

. It was Bishop

's idea which led to the creation of an organisation called "Transformacao de Armas em Enxadas" or "Transforming Arms into Tools". Sengulane who was one of the people credited for creating the opportunity for peace following the Mozambique Civil War. Tree of Life closeup

The "Transforming Arms into Tools" organisation supplied the decommissioned weapons to the artists and his group for this and many other related pieces of sculpture. TreeOfLifeMozambiqueLizard

Around the bottom of the main trunk, which weighs half a ton (c. 500 kg), there are some complementary sculptures of animals. The animals are a turtle, a lizard and two birds. These too are made from welded guns. Weapons are important symbols in Mozambique. An AK47 still features on Mozambique's flag. This sculpture was made from weapons which include Kalashnikov

AK47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms de ...

s , Walther 42s, German

MP 40 The MP 40 (''Maschinenpistole 40'') is a submachine gun chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. It was developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Axis powers during World War II. Designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with in ...

s and British 4.85mms. The millions of weapons in Mozambique were the remains of the civil war that was funded by

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and Rhodesia and involved emigrants from both of their regimes. One million people were killed and the war only ended when the Soviet Union collapsed and the funding ended.

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...

of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

said, when similar work was being discussed, "We don't manufacture weapons, we sometimes don't even have money to buy them. How do we get these weapons to kill each other?"

Provenance

This sculpture was commissioned by the British Museum in 2005 after they had purchased another sculpture called ''

Throne of Weapons The ''Throne of Weapons'' () is a 2002 sculpture created by Cristóvão Canhavato out of disused weapons. It is owned by the British Museum and has been called the Museum's most "eloquent object" and has been shown in a wide variety of ways. Des ...

'' in 2002. The sculpture had been brought to England by Christian Aid's Julia Fairrie as part of an exhibition called ''Swords into Ploughshares. Transforming Arms into Art'', following a documentary film for Christian Aid and the BBC of the same name.

Importance

This piece was exhibited in the museum main area from February 2005. It played a leading part in the "Africa 2005 Season" which took place in Britain and involved the Arts Council, the British Museum, Christian Aid and a number of London galleries. The season finished in October 2005. In 2010 the tree is a feature of room 25 of the British Museum. Bishop Sengulane who started this project said.

Why should this world have hungry people? Why should this world have a shortage of medicines? And yet, the amount of money which can be made available, almost instantly, for armament purposes is just amazing, and I would say shocking.

Gallery

File:TreeOfLifeYellowBM.jpg

References

External links

{{British Museum 2005 sculptures African sculpture African sculptures in the British Museum Steel sculptures in the United Kingdom Mozambique–United Kingdom relations