France has returned three human skulls, obtained during the colonial era, to the government of Madagascar.
One of the skulls is said to have belonged to King Teora, a Malagasy king who was killed by the French army in 1897. After his death, his skull was taken by the French troops and displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The two other skulls belonged to the Sakalava ethnic group.
The remains were handed over in a ceremony attended by the culture ministers of both countries. Rachida Dati, the French minister, said: “These skulls entered the national collections in circumstances that clearly violated human dignity and in a context of colonial violence.” Volamiranty Donna Mara, from Madagascar side, said: “Their absence has been, for more than a century, 128 years, an open wound in the heart of our island.”
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Since Emmanuel Macron became the president of France in 2017, there has been a strong effort to restitute and repatriate objects taken via force or theft, particularly from the former French colonies in Africa. However, the major roadblock has always been French laws that prevent objects of cultural importance to France from leaving the country. Earlier this year, Macron introduced legislation that would allow objects taken through coercion or theft between 1815 and 1972 (considered the hayday of the French colonial empire) could be returned to their countries of origin. The bill would be debated in the senate next month.
