A huge sculpture made out of gun fragments is being unveiled at the British Museum in London.![](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v1WulHladJzqZwv6kjbUyQGJnXYb4fCJ_52O8ib_yIos-wO4rBXdmh66NnDpDjtdefWxAPPaq_Ih0i6gTRJuYVWLw=s0-d)
The "Tree of Life" was created from weapons collected as part of a project in Mozambique which exchanges guns for building materials and other equipment.
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In nine years the project has collected and dismantled more than 600,000 weapons left over from the civil war.
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The British Museum and Christian Aid commissioned the piece for the start of the arts festival Africa 2005.
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The artists used AK-47s, pistols and rocket-propelled grenade launchers to create the piece of art which they see as a way of promoting peace.
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There are still millions of arms hidden throughout Mozambique, a legacy of the 16-year-long civil war that ended in 1992.
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Artists in Mozambique created the 'tree of Life'
'Killing machines'![](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v1WulHladJzqZwv6kjbUyQGJnXYb4fCJ_52O8ib_yIos-wO4rBXdmh66NnDpDjtdefWxAPPaq_Ih0i6gTRJuYVWLw=s0-d)
The Transforming Arms into Tools project has been so successful in collecting guns from former soldiers that other African governments are considering implementing similar schemes.
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Bishop Dom Dinis Sengulane, founder of Transforming Arms into Tools, said: "I tell people that sleeping with a gun in your bedroom is like sleeping with a snake - one day it will turn round and bite you."
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Dr Daleep Mukarji, director of Christian Aid, said: "It's amazing to see how Mozambican artists build a culture of peace through creating fascinating sculptures from dismantled killing machines.
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"This project encourages people to exchange tools of death with tools for living."
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Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said: "It is an extraordinary, thought-provoking sculpture which is a potent emblem of the complexities linking Africa to the rest of the world."
See BBC NEWS | Museum to unveil gun sculpture
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