Open Doors has commissioned Nigerian artist Asiegbu Collins to create a unique sculpture as a focal point for the Arise Africa campaign.

At 33 years old, Collins is an artist who primarily works with metal, and he has undertaken the task of sculpting a tree based on the Nigerian Camphor tree. This symbolic piece, named the Tree of Prayer & Justice, will travel the world as part of the campaign, visiting government institutions and influential places to raise awareness about the plight of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa.

For Collins, this project is deeply personal. As a teenager, he witnessed the violence and displacement firsthand. It were his childhood memories that drove his work on sculpting the metal tree, Collins says. The tree is part of the Arise Africa campaign, telling the story of what is happening to Christians affected by violence in sub-Saharan Africa as well as a symbol of hope.

Collins was still in primary school when riots erupted in Jos, the capital of Nigeria’s Plateau State, on 7 September 2001. Following Friday prayers mobs set fire to houses, churches and mosques. Approximately 1,000 people were killed in the 6 days of violence that followed. “From our veranda we were counting burning houses and wondered if the fire service were going to do anything about it,” Collins remembers. “But when we saw people were being pushed back, we knew something serious was going on. From that night we became homeless.” The violence was all over the city. People were scavenging, they did not know how to survive. People were killed. All these things I witnessed as a child. It was so gruesome. You are here this minute but don’t know where the attack comes from the next minute.” Collins, together with his mum and younger brother, fled and with 5 other families, found shelter in army barracks.

‘Life is sacred’

Collins ended up going to university and studying fine arts and became a visual artist specializing in metal sculptures. His experiences as a child in Jos, of violence and displacement, came flooding back to him when he was approached by Open Doors to create a tree for the Arise Africa Campaign.

To help him understand the situation of Christian IDPs (internally displaced people) better, to inspire the creation of the tree, he travelled with a team to some of the camps in the north. “This is where the project started feeling personal,” he says. “We met up and visited the camps. My job was to sit and listen, to see what we normally only hear in the news, what it felt like…”

Hearing their stories, I realized that while I may not have faced exactly what they are enduring, I understand what it’s like when something disrupts and destroys the life you know,” he reflects. “But thank God we’re alive today, and we can acknowledge what we’ve been through. It’s like the tree – the tree symbolizes life, it gives life, and it grows.” “When Open Doors asked for a tree, I thought, ‘perfect.’ I hope the tree, along with the story behind it, impacts people. We may have differences – political, religious, cultural – but we should all strive to respect life. Life is sacred and must be treated as such. We have no right, and no one should feel entitled, to take another person’s life.”