How do you heal the wounds of colonial history?
For Madagascar, one step came this week with the long-awaited return of ancestral remains taken more than a century ago.
On Tuesday, the country held a solemn ceremony to welcome home the skulls of three men killed by French troops 128 years ago.
One is believed to be King Toera of the Sakalava people, who was beheaded in 1897, and two of his warriors.
France formally handed over the skulls in Paris on August 27.
This was the first restitution since a 2023 law allowed the return of human remains seized during its colonial campaigns.
The remains arrived in Antananarivo on Monday, greeted at the airport by Sakalava descendants in traditional robes.
Return To Homeland
Carried in boxes draped with Madagascar’s flag, they were driven through the capital before being placed in the city’s mausoleum.
President Andry Rajoelina, addressing the crowd, reminded the nation: “If we want to move forward, we must know our past, our history.”
He praised King Toera and his men as symbols of courage in the fight against colonial forces.
For the Sakalava, the return was deeply personal.
King Toera’s great-grandson, the newly enthroned King Georges Harea Kamamy, sprinkled sacred river water over the skulls.
“We Sakalava are relieved,” he said. “Today is a day of joy.”
History, after all, isn’t just remembered—it can finally come home.
