Friends, nous sommes ensemble – we are together – for peace! I produced this song in Goma, DRC, where peace is desperately needed. I wrote it in minutes, on a short flight because over 100 rebel groups made road travel unsafe. Once we landed, rebel fighting prevented us from completing our humanitarian missions to help internally displaced people fleeing conflict. We passed deserted homes and farms, checkpoints and armed guards, had constant radio contact with the security team, but couldn't work. The people who had fled had none of that - no homes, nowhere to charge their phones, no ways to stay in touch with loved ones, no means of farming or making a living. They even risked their lives to fetch water or firewood to cook leaves they foraged, or rice from whatever humanitarian assistance or supplies reached them. When I asked why the women were sent to do these dangerous tasks, the response was, "Women will just get raped. Men will be killed."
We are one global family. No one should ever suffer such violence, but things are even more desperate now. Last year, the UN were expelled over frustrations that they didn't stop the insecurity. This year, the rebel group, M23, took over Goma, and is expanding south. One of my peace partners, William, literally dodged two bullets on the day of the invasion, then counted 5 more bullet holes on his walls when the rebels moved away. Thank God, he evacuated his wife and two little children to safety before the strike. My peace partner from Uganda, Chrispo, is desperately worried about his family in Goma, whom he hasn't heard from since the attack. We pray that it's just dislocation, lack of money and phone charge that keep them silent, and not the guns.
This song shares the message that we are together, whether for peace or war, justice or impunity, love or hate, life or death. We're in this together. We share one earth, and borders are not visible from the skies. International trade (including in arms and mercenaries) easily crosses borders. North American, European, and African interests are wreaking havoc in the Congo, which is rich in minerals, including coltan, which is needed for our smartphones. We are all implicated in illicit mineral trade, and ineffective international peacebuilding. We need to pressure our governments to care as much about people in the Congo, who have been suffering insecurity in for 30 years, as we do about people in Ukraine, and Gaza. Every life is precious. Every child has the right to sleep in peace.
Please pray for peace in the Congo, and if you can, donate to a trusted NGO that is trying to help in the chaos. Advocate that instead of raising war budgets to 5%, countries meet their decades-old, and virtually never met, target of 0.7% GDP for the sustainable development goals. A Ugandan general in my peace and conflict studies course in East Africa said it succinctly: "The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the fastest paths to peace." They are essential, life-giving investments in global health, education, sanitation and security. We could achieve them by 2030 for a fraction of the cost that we spend on military budgets, let alone the incalcuable cost to human life. If we are to survive as a species, and a planet, we have to invest all of our energies in peace now, before we face global catastrophes that we can't reverse in the future. The world depends on it.
As the song says,
Me, I choose peace
Me, I choose unity
Me, I choose justice
Are you with me?
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