The skull of a Malagasy king killed by French troops during a colonial era conflict has finally been handed back to Madagascar.
The formal handover of King Toera’s head, along with the skulls of two members of his royal court took place during a ceremony at the Culture Ministry in Paris.
These remains, taken to France at the close of the 19th Century, had been kept in the archives of the Museum of Natural History in the French capital.
This marks the first application of a new law designed to speed up the restitution of human remains held in French collections.
“These skulls entered the national collections in circumstances that clearly violated human dignity and in a context of colonial violence,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said at the event, as quoted by AFP.
In August 1897, French forces dispatched to enforce colonial rule over the Menabé kingdom of the Sakalava people in western Madagascar slaughtered a local army.
King Toera was killed, beheaded, and his head transported to Paris, where it was kept for more than a century in the Museum of Natural History.
