France has formally returned the skull of King Toera, a Malagasy ruler killed during France’s colonial conquest of Madagascar, more than a century after his death.
The handover, which also included the skulls of two members of his court, took place at the French culture ministry in Paris. The remains had been kept in the collections of the Museum of Natural History since the late 19th century, when they were taken to France following the Menabé kingdom’s defeat.
“This is the first use of a new law designed to expedite the restitution of human remains from French museums,” said Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who presided over the ceremony. “These skulls entered the national collections in circumstances that clearly violated human dignity and in a context of colonial violence,” she said, according to AFP.
King Toera was killed in August 1897 when French troops massacred his forces in western Madagascar. After his death, his head was severed and transported to Paris, where it was archived for more than 120 years.
For decades, descendants of the monarch, alongside the Malagasy government, pressed for his remains to be returned. While DNA tests on the skull were inconclusive, a traditional Sakalava spirit medium confirmed its identity, paving the way for repatriation.
Madagascar’s culture minister, Volamiranty Donna Mara, described the moment as deeply symbolic. “Their absence has been, for more than a century… an open wound in the heart of our island,” she said at the handover.
The return adds to a growing global reckoning with the legacy of colonial plunder and the restitution of human remains. In 2012, France repatriated the remains of the South African woman derisively known as the “Hottentot Venus,” whose body had been displayed in Europe during the 19th century.
The new French law is expected to accelerate such returns. The Museum of Natural History alone holds more than 20,000 human remains from around the world, many acquired in the name of “science” during the colonial era.
For Madagascar, the return of King Toera’s skull represents both a symbolic healing of historical wounds and a reminder of the unfinished debate over restitution across Africa.