The culture ministers of France and Madagascar, on Thursday, October 3, took the first step toward repatriating human remains taken from the Indian Ocean island while under French colonial rule.
A joint scientific committee will review Madagascar's request that France return the skull of King Toera, beheaded by troops during the early days of colonization. The review is the first of its kind since France voted in December 2023 to facilitate the restitution of human remains held in its public collections. Madagascar declared independence in 1960 after more than 60 years of French colonial rule.
"France wants to respond to this expectation," Culture Minister Rachida Dati told reporters, hailing a "historic moment" alongside her Madagascan counterpart Volamiranty Donna Mara.
These remains are "of crucial importance" to the Malagasy people, Mara said.
The committee will issue an opinion to the French government, which will then decide on returning King Toera's remains and those of two chiefs from Madagascar's Sakalava ethnic group, all currently held in the country's natural history museum, in Paris. One-third of the estimated 30,000 biological specimens held in Paris's anthropological museum, the Musee de l'Homme, are skulls and skeletons.
"This is an act of reconciliation," said MP Christophe Marion when he presented the bill to return ancestral remains to France's lower house of parliament last November.
France has voted on several laws in recent years aimed at returning artifacts held in its museums to their original countries or owners. The country's parliament passed a law streamlining the return of art looted by Nazis to their Jewish owners or heirs the same year it voted to facilitate the repatriation of human remains. Yet a third law enabling the return of property taken during the colonial era has not been finalized amid a right-wing backlash in parliament earlier this year.
"We need to put these issues back on the table," Dati said, adding that "these are important issues" for healing historical wounds.