Madagascar held a ceremony on Tuesday that marked the return of three skulls held by France for 128 years, including one who is believed to be a Malagasy king decapitated by French troops in the 19th century.
France handed the skulls in Paris on August 27 in the first such refund since it passed a law in 2023, which facilitates the return of human remains taken under its colonial conquests.
The skulls are believed to belong to King Tower, head of the Sakalava people, who were beheaded by French troops in 1897 and two of his warriors.
They arrived in Madagascar late Monday and were received at the airport by members of the Sakalava group dressed in traditional clothes.
Holded in three boxes killed with flags from the Indian Ocean Nation, the skulls were run through the capital Antananarivo to the city’s mausoleum on Tuesday, where they were received by President Andry Rajoelina and a collection of government and Sakalava digits.
They will continue their journey along the way to the West Coast area of Belo Tsiribihina, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the capital, where they are expected to be buried later this week.
The skulls were led to France as trophies and stored in Paris’s National History Museum along with hundreds of other remains of Madagascar, which declared independence in 1960 after more than 60 years of French colonial management.
French Minister of Culture Rachida Date said at the Paris event that a common scientific committee confirmed that they were from the Sakalava people, but said it could only “assume” that they belonged to King Tower.
France has in recent years sent back various objects under its imperial conquests, but each time demanded special legislation until Parliament passed the law that simplifies the repatriation of human remains.
Thumbnail of Reuters – File image of a skull of Namibian genocide victim
