In a significant gesture of reparation and reconciliation, France has returned three human skulls to Madagascar, 128 years after they were looted by French colonial forces.
The skulls, including one believed to belong to King Toera, who was beheaded by French troops in 1897, were formally handed over at a ceremony held at the French Ministry of Culture on Tuesday.
This event marks the first restitution of human remains since France passed a law facilitating the return of such artifacts in 2023.
The skulls were taken from Madagascar during the colonial period and were kept at Paris’s national history museum alongside hundreds of other remains from the Indian Ocean island.
French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati acknowledged the violent circumstances under which the skulls were acquired, stating that they “entered the national collections in circumstances that clearly violated human dignity and in a context of colonial violence.”
The return of the skulls is seen as a step towards healing the historical wounds inflicted during France’s colonization of Madagascar, which lasted for over 60 years until the country declared independence in 1960.
The handover ceremony was attended by Volamiranty Donna Mara, Madagascar’s Minister of Culture, who praised the return of the skulls as a significant moment for her country.
Mara described the taking of the skulls as “an open wound in the heart of our island” for over a century and emphasized that they are not mere collectors’ items but “the invisible and indelible link that unites our present to our past.”
The skulls will be returned to Madagascar on Sunday, where they will be buried in a ceremony coinciding with the anniversary of King Toera’s execution.
This act of restitution is part of a broader trend of Western museums and countries returning cultural artifacts and human remains to their countries of origin.
With a third of the 30,000 specimens at Paris’s Musee de l’Homme being skulls and skeletons from around the world, several countries, including Australia and Argentina, have filed restitution requests for the return of ancestral remains.
During a visit to Madagascar in April, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke of seeking “forgiveness” for France’s “bloody and tragic” colonization of the island, signaling a shift towards greater acknowledgment and accountability for France’s colonial past.
The return of the skulls to Madagascar is a meaningful step towards reconciliation and healing.
It recognizes the historical injustices inflicted during the colonial period and acknowledges the cultural and emotional significance of these artifacts to the Madagascan people.
As the skulls are laid to rest in their homeland, this act of restitution serves as a reminder of the importance of respecting cultural heritage and the need for ongoing dialogue and cooperation between nations to address the legacies of colonialism.