France today performed a symbolic act of reconciliation by returning the skull of King Toera–executed during colonial conquest in 1897–and two warriors’ remains to Madagascar after over 128 years in storage at Parisian museums.
After their executions in August 1897’s Ambiky massacre, where hundreds (if not thousands) were killed despite Toera’s attempt at surrender, their bodies had been housed at France’s Musee de l’Homme of Paris as part of its Natural History Museum for safekeeping.
This return marks a 22-year diplomatic effort, first initiated with an official request made in 2003 and supported both modern forensic analysis as well as spiritual confirmations from Sakalava divinatory rites reportedly verifying his skull – adding cultural weight to scientific pursuit. Environmental Finance Agency reported on this development.
Repatriation marks the inaugural practical application of France’s December 2023 Restitution Law, which authorizes cultural institutions to return human remains when their acquisition violates original dignity of individuals, according to Barron’s Art Newspaper + Ecofin Agency.
An official decree issued by Ecofin Agency on April 2, 2025 approved of this restitution decision made by a French-Malagasy scientific and cultural committee set up late 2024, who reviewed and approved it.
The ceremony has been scheduled for August, in accordance with Sakalava spiritual traditions that consider April an inauspicious month for such ceremonies; this decision followed initial disagreements among government officials and royal descendants over when and where it should take place;
At a national handover in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s Minister of Communication and Culture Volamiranty Donna Mara described the event as a moment of national unity; emphasizing its cultural significance by returning ancestral remains to Menabe, King Aisen’s home region. Within Ecofin Agency +12 Africa Intelligence.
King Toera’s great-great-grandson Georges Kamamy Jr. has now been appointed as Sakalava royal figurehead, overseeing traditional purification and funeral rituals according to longstanding customs, according to Euronews (Eurofin Agency), Le Monde (Le Monde.fr), Ecofin Agency, etc.
France has already started repatriating cultural heritage items, like Queen Ranavalona III’s canopy crown in 2020 and remains of indigenous leaders, back home. This latest restitution adds momentum to an emerging international movement to address colonial-era theft and trauma through cultural heritage repatriation (Le Monde.fr, Ecofin Agency +7)
Officials on both sides expressed hope that today’s ceremony would mark a new era in Franco-Malagasy relations based on mutual respect, historical accountability, and cultural revival.