France has formally returned the skull of King Toera, a 19th-century Malagasy monarch killed during colonial conquest in the first restitution of human remains under a new law passed in 2023.
The handover, which also included two other skulls from the Sakalava ethnic group, marks a historic moment in France’s reckoning with its colonial past.
The remains were transferred to Madagascar at a ceremony held on Tuesday at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati described the event as “historic,” noting that the skulls had entered national collections “in circumstances that clearly violated human dignity and in a context of colonial violence.”
King Toera was killed and decapitated in August 1897 during a French military campaign to assert control over the Menabe kingdom in western Madagascar.
His skull was subsequently sent to Paris and stored at the Museum of Natural History for over a century.
Although DNA tests were inconclusive, a traditional Sakalava spirit medium confirmed the identity of the remains.
Madagascar’s Culture Minister Volamiranty Donna Mara hailed the restitution as a “significant moment for the Sakalava community and the nation,” calling the skulls “the invisible and indelible link that unites our present to our past.”
“Their absence has been, for more than a century… an open wound in the heart of our island,” Mara said.
She plans to honour the remains in a national tribute coinciding with the anniversary of King Toera’s execution.
The return follows sustained pressure from the Malagasy government and descendants of the king and comes amid broader efforts by France to repatriate artefacts and human remains acquired during its imperial era.
The 2023 law streamlines the process, allowing for the return of items held in public collections without requiring separate legislation for each case.
France has previously returned colonial-era remains, including the body of Sarah Baartman, known as the “Hottentot Venus,” to South Africa in 2012.
However, the restitution of King Toera’s skull is the first under the new legal framework and could pave the way for further repatriations.
An estimated 20,000 human remains from around the world are still held in French museums.
JN/APA