By Ebiere Kekeboro
Madagascar on Tuesday held a solemn state ceremony in Antananarivo to mark the return of three skulls kept in France for 128 years, including one believed to belong to King Toera, the Sakalava monarch executed by French troops in 1897.
The restitution, carried out under a 2023 French law facilitating the repatriation of human remains acquired during colonial conquests, is the first of its kind since the legislation was adopted.
The remains believed to be those of King Toera and two of his warriors were handed over in Paris on August 27 before being flown to Madagascar. They arrived late Monday and were welcomed at Ivato International Airport by members of the Sakalava community dressed in traditional attire.
On Tuesday morning, the skulls were carried in three flag-draped boxes by Malagasy security servicemen and transported in a convoy through Antananarivo to the city’s mausoleum. President Andry Rajoelina, cabinet officials, and Sakalava leaders attended the solemn ceremony, which combined military honours with traditional rites.
The skulls will later be transported to Belo Tsiribihina, a town on Madagascar’s west coast, about 320 kilometres from the capital. There, they are expected to receive final burial later this week, restoring them to their ancestral homeland.
Historians note that King Toera resisted French expansion in western Madagascar before being captured and beheaded in 1897. His skull, along with those of two warriors, was taken as a war trophy and deposited in Paris’s National Museum of Natural History, where it remained alongside hundreds of other Malagasy remains collected during France’s colonial rule.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, speaking at the Paris handover last week, said a joint scientific panel confirmed the skulls’ Sakalava origin but could only presume that one belonged to King Toera.
The return of the remains comes amid France’s broader effort to address historical injustices linked to its colonial past. In recent years, Paris has restituted artefacts to African countries, but each case required lengthy parliamentary approval. The new law, adopted in 2023, simplifies the process for human remains, paving the way for further restitutions.
For Madagascar, the ceremony was both symbolic and historic. President Rajoelina described the restitution as “an act of justice and dignity” for the Malagasy people, adding that it closed “a painful chapter of colonial humiliation.”
Madagascar gained independence from France in 1960 after more than six decades of colonial domination. The return of King Toera’s skull is seen as a step toward reclaiming national memory and honouring ancestors who resisted foreign rule.