France's overseas territories urge country's top museums to return colonial-era human remains
When Paris receives a request from a foreign country for the return of human remains held in France's public museum collections, such demands can be granted under recent legislation. But the French state argues that there is a legal vacuum when such claims instead come from French overseas territories such as French Guiana on the South American mainland and Réunion in the Indian Ocean, both of which are governed from Paris. Julien Sartre reports on attempts to change the law to allow remains held by metropolitan museums to be returned to these distant French territories.
TheThe skulls of King Toera and two Sakalava warriors, killed in 1897 and 1898 respectively during France’s conquest of Madagascar, are due to return to the land of their forebears this August. This return will mark the end of a long process that began in 2003. President Emmanuel Macron had in fact himself originally planned to take part in a ceremony to commemorate this homecoming during his official visit to the independent Indian Ocean island last week, and to mark the “pacification of memories” it is meant to bring about.
