ANTANANARIVO: Madagascar ceremonially received three colonial-era skulls from France on Tuesday, 128 years after they were taken from the Indian Ocean nation, including one believed to be that of a Malagasy king beheaded by French troops.
Public pressure has grown in recent years for former colonial powers such as France and Britain to return artefacts taken from Africa and Asia.
The skulls, presumed to belong to King Toera and two others from the Sakalava ethnic group, were formally handed over to Madagascar at a ceremony held at the French culture ministry in late August.
A military guard of honor raised swords as three men in traditional dress carried the skulls, draped in red cloth, out of the plane that landed in Antananarivo late on Monday.
The skulls were welcomed with a ceremony on Tuesday attended by President Andry Rajoelina at the Mausoleum of Antananarivo, the resting place of Malagasy national heroes.
A police officer, a soldier and a gendarme carried the skulls into the mausoleum, where Rajoelina, wearing a traditional “Lamba Landy” textile draped over a black suit, inspected a guard of honor.
“We are here to pay tribute and honor the heroes and those who fought for the homeland 128 years ago under the leadership of King Toera and his soldiers,” Rajoelina said.
The king’s skull will now be taken to Ambiky, in the Menabe region, where he was killed in 1897, the ministry of communication and culture said, with several stops en route to accommodate ceremonies to mark the occasion.
Descendants and historians say the return of Toera’s skull carries both political and cultural significance and will allow the Sakalava people to carry out the Fitampoha, a traditional ritual of purification and blessing that requires the presence of ancestral royal relics.
“Toera is not only the king of the Sakalava, he is also a martyr of independence,” Piero Kamamy, a descendant of the monarch, told Reuters.
According to Malagasy historians, Toera’s attempt to forge alliances symbolized a rare moment of unity between different Malagasy groups against colonial forces.
His capture and beheading in 1897 were part of a broader French strategy to crush resistance through psychological intimidation, said Jeannot Rasoloarison, a historian at the University of Antananarivo.
“The Sakalava can now grieve with the return of the king’s remains and can constitute his relics.”
Madagascar receives three colonial-era human skulls from France
https://arab.news/2j6c7
Madagascar receives three colonial-era human skulls from France
- Public pressure has grown in recent years for former colonial powers such as France and Britain to return artefacts taken from Africa and Asia
Fossils of ‘Java Man,’ first known Homo erectus, return to Indonesia
- Netherlands to repatriate more than 28,000 items in Dubois collection in 2026
- Fossils excavated in Indonesia were ‘removed against will of people’
JAKARTA: Prehistoric bones belonging to “Java Man” — the first known fossil evidence of Homo erectus — went on display at Indonesia’s National Museum on Thursday, more than 130 years after they were taken to the Netherlands during Dutch colonial rule.
The parts of the skeleton — a skull fragment, molar and thigh bone — were uncovered along the Bengawan Solo River on Java island in the late 19th century by Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugene Dubois.
The three items, and a related shell that was scratched by early Homo erectus, are the first in the planned repatriation of more than 28,000 fossils and natural history objects originating in Java and Sumatra that Dubois had removed.
“Repatriation is a national priority,” Indonesian Culture Minister Fadli Zon said during an official handover ceremony in Jakarta.
“We bear the responsibility to protect cultural heritage, restore historical narratives and ensure public access to the cultural and scientific heritage that belongs to Indonesia.”
Fossils of the Java Man, which was hand-carried in a GPS-tracked, climate-controlled suitcase with a diplomatic seal, were some of the first pieces of evidence showing links between apes and humans.
The fossils are part of the larger Dubois collection that was managed by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, a 200-year-old scientific institution in Leiden.
The rest of the collection will be transferred to Indonesia in 2026, the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement, adding that Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency will take a lead role in preserving and managing the items.
“This handover marks the beginning of the next phase. We intend to repatriate thousands of items excavated in Indonesia over 130 years ago,” said Marcel Beukeboom, general director of Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
“This fossil bears witness to an important link in human evolution, while also representing part of Indonesian history and cultural heritage,” he said.
Jakarta started to campaign for the Dutch government to return stolen Indonesian artifacts after declaring independence in 1945, but the Netherlands started to return stolen items only in small numbers in the 1970s.
Recent efforts by the Indonesian Repatriation Committee have brought back home hundreds of artifacts since 2023, bringing the number to more than 2,000 items so far.
The repatriation of the Dubois collection was first announced in September, following recommendation by the Netherlands’ Colonial Collections Committee.
“The Colonial Collections Committee has concluded … that the Dutch state never owned the Dubois collection,” the Dutch government said in a news release issued at the time.
“The committee believes that the circumstances under which the fossils were obtained means it is likely they were removed against the will of the people, resulting in an act of injustice against them.
“Fossils held spiritual and economic value for local people, who were coerced into revealing fossil sites.”
The returned fossils are now a centerpiece of “Early History,” a new permanent exhibit at the National Museum in Jakarta that opened to the public on Thursday.
It explores the history of human civilization throughout Indonesia, with displays including a replica of one of the world’s oldest cave paintings from South Sulawesi and inscriptions from the 4th-century Hindu Kutai Martadipura Kingdom in East Kalimantan.
