Madagascar receives skull of beheaded king returned by France

Madagascar held a ceremony Tuesday marking the return of three skulls kept by France for 128 years, including one believed to be that of a Malagasy king decapitated by French troops in the 19th century.

France handed over the skulls in Paris on August 27 in the first such restitution since it passed a law in 2023 facilitating the return of human remains taken during its colonial conquests.

The skulls are believed to belong to King Toera, leader of the Sakalava people, who was beheaded by French troops in 1897, and two of his warriors.

They arrived in Madagascar late Monday and were received at the airport by members of the Sakalava group dressed in traditional robes.

Held in three boxes draped with the flag of the Indian Ocean nation, the skulls were driven through the capital Antananarivo to the city’s mausoleum Tuesday, where they were received by President Andry Rajoelina and a gathering of government and Sakalava dignitaries.

They will continue their journey by road to the west coast area of Belo Tsiribihina, about 320 kilometres (200 miles) from the capital, where they are expected to be buried later this week.

The skulls were taken to France as trophies and kept in Paris’s national history museum alongside hundreds of other remains from Madagascar, which declared independence in 1960 after more than 60 years of French colonial rule.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said at the Paris event that a joint scientific committee confirmed they were from the Sakalava people but said it could only “presume” that one belonged to King Toera.

France has in recent years sent back various artefacts taken during its imperial conquests, but each time required special legislation until parliament adopted the law simplifying the repatriation of human remains.

Thumbnail image by Reuters — File image of a skull of Namibian genocide victim