France returns skull of king beheaded during colonial era to Madagascar
France has returned three skulls to Madagascar more than a century after they were taken, including one believed to be that of a 19th-century Malagasy king who was beheaded by French troops.
The repatriation of the skulls to the island nation off the southeastern coast of Africa marks the first time France has implemented a 2023 law enabling the return of human remains to a country for funeral purposes.
France conquered the kingdoms of the Sakalava people in western Madagascar in the 1890s and integrated the Sakalava into a newly formed French colony.
One of the three Sakalava skulls returned to Madagascar, which gained independence from France in 1960, is presumed to be that of King Toera, the French Ministry of Culture said in a statement Tuesday. He was executed by French troops in 1897.
The other two skulls belonged to two generals who fought with the king, Madagascar’s Ministry of Communications and Culture said in a statement Tuesday announcing the return of the “heroes.”
The skulls had been kept in collections held by France’s National Museum of Natural History until they were formally handed over at a ceremony at the culture ministry on Tuesday.
“I welcome the return of these three skulls, including that of King Toera of the Sakalava people, an origin shared by nearly a third of the Malagasy population,” Fetra Rakotondrasoava, permanent secretary of Madagascar’s Ministry of Culture, who co-chaired the Malagasy-French Committee of Researchers working on the identification of the skulls, told CNN on Wednesday.
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