Overview

• At a ceremony at the French Ministry of Culture, authorities symbolically handed three Sakalava skulls to Madagascar’s delegation.
• Scientific work established the remains’ Sakalava origin with certainty but only presumes one skull is that of King Toera, killed in 1897 at Ambiky.
• The skulls were held at Paris’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle after entering national collections under conditions officials said violated human dignity in a context of colonial violence.
• Transported in trunks covered with traditional fabrics, the remains are scheduled to return to Madagascar on August 31 for reburial.
• French and Malagasy ministers described the restitution as a meaningful acknowledgment of past abuses, following President Emmanuel Macron’s April call to advance such returns.