Madagascar has held a solemn and historic ceremony marking the return of three skulls seized during France’s colonial conquest in the late 19th century, including one believed to be that of Sakalava King Toera, who was decapitated in 1897.
The remains, taken to France as trophies following the Ambiky massacre, were preserved in Paris’s national history museum for more than a century. They were officially handed over to Malagasy authorities on August 27 in Paris.
Under a new French law passed in 2023 that allows the restitution of human remains collected during colonial campaigns, this was the first restitution carried out under the legislation.
The skulls arrived in Antananarivo late on Monday, September 1, 2025 and were received with deep reverence by members of the Sakalava community dressed in traditional robes.
Placed in boxes draped with Madagascar’s national flag, the remains were transported through the capital to the city’s mausoleum, where President Andry Rajoelina presided over a state ceremony attended by government officials and Sakalava dignitaries.
“If we want to move forward, we must know our past, our history. We are proud to have had a king and his soldiers who protected the nation with courage and daring,” Rajoelina said.
A journey of memory and restitution
King Toera’s great-grandson, the newly enthroned Sakalava king Georges Harea Kamamy, performed a traditional rite by sprinkling water from the sacred Tsiribihina River to welcome home his ancestor’s remains.
“We Sakalava are relieved. Today is a day of joy,” he declared, though he expressed disappointment that the skulls were handed to the government rather than directly to the royal family.
The remains are expected to travel overland on a four-day, 800-kilometre journey to Menabe, on Madagascar’s west coast. The skull attributed to King Toera will be reunited with the rest of his skeleton in Ambiky, where he was executed by French colonial troops in 1897.
The restitution is part of a broader shift in France’s handling of colonial-era collections. In recent years, Paris has returned artefacts and remains taken from Africa, but until the 2023 law each case required special parliamentary approval.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati noted during the handover ceremony that while a scientific committee confirmed the skulls belonged to the Sakalava people, it could only “presume” that one was King Toera’s.
For Madagascar, the return represents both a symbolic act of justice and a moment of healing. After 128 years, the memory of a king who resisted colonial conquest and the warriors who fought beside him is being restored to the soil where their story began.
