Madagascar demands from France three skulls kept at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris

The Senate must adopt a law on Monday to facilitate the restitution to foreign states of human remains belonging to French public collections. This is particularly the case for three skulls, acquired during the colonial conquest, and requested by Madagascar.

Return human remains housed in French museums to foreign states. The Senate must definitively adopt a law on this subject on Monday, December 18. The objective is to create an exemption from “principle of inalienability” collections, in order to “reconcile memories” when these remains were “acquired in an illegitimate or even violent manner”according to Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak.

Until now, restitutions have been organized by laws taken on a case-by-case basis, for example to return the “Hottentot Venus” to South Africa. But the requests are increasing. This is the case of Madagascar, which claims three skulls, including the supposed one of a king decapitated by colonial troops.

“Without the skull, no relic possible”

The expectation is so strong in Madagascar that it has become a presidential promise. For the country, these three Sakalave skulls, named after this people living in the west of the island, must find their descendants. But they are kept thousands of kilometers away, at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. One of them has particular importance : that supposed of King Toera, a figure of the resistance, beheaded in 1897 during an attack by French colonial troops.

“King Toera is the last independent king of Menabe, a royalty that dates back to the 17th^e century, considered the mother royalty for all of western Sakalava, all of western Madagascar, and for their religion”details Klara Boyer-Rossol, historian, researcher at the International Center for Research on Slavery and Post-Slavery. “Because the religion is based on the cult of royal ancestors. And one of the great ceremonies of this cult is the Fitampoha, the Bath of the royal Sakalave relics. But the last royal relic is missing. And without the skull, no possible relic.”

It is she who, after years of investigations and research, identifies with a very high probability the royal skull. But the DNA recovered from a bone of the king and sent to the museum is too degraded to be compared.

A Franco-Malagasy commission to authenticate the skulls

Even if the identification failed, these skulls must find their land of origin, defends the historian. “It would not be a question of requesting the restitution of the said named King Toera, but of requesting the restitution of three Sakalaves whose remains were illegitimately removed in this context of armed colonial conquest and transferred to France to the Paris museum.”

In Madagascar, anyone who cannot connect with their graves, with the remains of their ancestors, is considered almost outside of humanity.

Klara Boyer-Rossol, historian

at franceinfo

Hence the importance of this law on the restitution of human remains in general. L’“social identity is based on the relationship with ancestors, asserts Klara Boyer-Rossol. The communities concerned, the descendants need to be able to carry out their rites, their tributes to their dead.”

A joint Franco-Malagasy commission will be responsible for scientifically and historically documenting the authenticity of these skulls. The restitution process could therefore take time and the supposed skull of King Toera may not be returned for the next Fitampoha, the Bath of Royal Relics, in summer 2024.