In July 2020, the return of 24 skulls of Algerians kept in France was a sign of appeasement between the two countries. With these human remains, brought back as trophies by the colonizers of the XIXe century, Algiers could finally pay homage to its first resistants, decapitated. It turns out, however, that this symbol of memorial reconciliation was accompanied by small arrangements with history. According to New York Times, only 6 of the 24 skulls handed over by Paris were clearly identified as those of resistance fighters. Among the others, of uncertain origin, are three auxiliaries of the French army. The discovery thus reopens a wound that France’s gesture was supposed to help close.
This imbroglio is not new. When in November 2019 France gave Senegal the saber said to be El Hadj Oumar Tall with great fanfare, specialists had reservations because this religious leader and conqueror had never owned it. “This is a strange signal that is sent to Africa: the first work that is ‘returned’ is a European object that has only spent a few years on the continent and is in no way what it is said to be”wrote the academic Francis Simonis in a forum at the World.
sad existence
By nature complex, the exercise of restitution is all the more complex when it comes to human remains. French collections hold more than 150,000 relics (skulls, bones, body parts preserved in jars, etc.), a few hundred of which, from former colonies, could be the legitimate subject of restitution requests. “A taboo question because it opens up a part of our history that is not always very glorious”notes Catherine Morin-Desailly, senator of the Centrist Union.
“The reserves of our museums, of the Musée de l’homme in particular, cannot be considered as dignified burials for a human being. Nicolas About, centrist senator, in 2001
For a long time, France slowed down in the face of pressure from countries demanding the return of these human relics, as evidenced by the fate of Saartjie Baartman, nicknamed the “Hottentot Venus”. Sexually exploited in England and then in France, exhibited like a freak for the peculiarities of her buxom buttocks, this woman from the Khoisan ethnic group ended her sad existence in Paris.
On his death in 1815, Saartjie Baartman was dissected, then classified by the anatomist Georges Cuvier as “representative of an inferior humanity”. The cast of his body as well as his skeleton will be exhibited at the Musée de l’homme as a hunting trophy. When South Africa claimed the remains in 1996, the Ministry of Culture then found all the pretexts to oppose it. A centrist senator, Nicolas About, was moved at the time and argues that “the reserves of our museums, of the Musée de l’homme in particular, cannot be considered as worthy burials for a human being”.
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