Madagascar has officially received the skulls of three individuals from France—one believed to belong to King Toera, a Sakalava ...
Madagascar has officially received the skulls of three individuals from France—one believed to belong to King Toera, a Sakalava monarch beheaded by French forces in 1897 during the country’s colonial conquest.
The remains, which also include the skulls of two of the king’s warriors, were returned by French authorities in Paris on August 27, in accordance with a 2023 French law that authorises the restitution of human remains taken during the colonial era.
The skulls arrived in Antananarivo late Monday and were honoured during a solemn state ceremony on Tuesday, September 2. The event was attended by President Andry Rajoelina, senior government officials, and Sakalava dignitaries. The remains were transported in boxes draped with Madagascar’s national flag and paraded through the capital before being placed in the city’s mausoleum.
According to officials, the remains will later be moved to Belo Tsiribihina, a town on Madagascar’s west coast, where they are expected to be reburied in a traditional ceremony later this week.
For more than a century, the skulls were housed at the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris, alongside hundreds of other human remains from Madagascar, which gained independence from France in 1960, after decades under colonial rule.
During the handover ceremony in Paris, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said that while scientific analysis confirmed the remains were of the Sakalava ethnic group, it could only be "presumed" that one of them belonged specifically to King Toera.
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