In the spirit of his latest tour, Scratch My Back (on which WITNESS was invited to join the North American leg), our co-founder Peter Gabriel has just released another cover: “In My Neighborhood” by Tom Waits. This time the song was released online in a simple but beautiful black-and-white video to call attention to the region of Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan, Eastern Congo and the Central African Republic where violent conflict has been a fact of life for over two decades. This is Peter’s contribution to The Voice Project, an organization that aims to amplify the voices of women in Northern Uganda who, through sharing songs, are encouraging peace and reconciliation in the region. Musicians from across the world have contributed videos to the Project.

As WITNESS supporters know, Peter is a big believer in using media, and in this case music, to reach people’s hearts and minds when other methods have failed:

Peter Gabriel » Tom Waits from The Voice Project.

WITNESS has worked with partners in the region including Northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we’re aware of the need for ongoing support and attention to the region. For the release of Peter’s video, The Voice Project partnered with WITNESS and the HOPE Campaign, Invisible Children, Oxfam America and Resolve Uganda. The world premiere of this video has been blogged about and picked up by Rolling Stone already!

We hope you’ll watch the video and if you like it and the message of peace it attempts to share, we hope you’ll share it with friends, colleagues, music-lovers, peace activists, etc.

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