By 
Madagascar on Tuesday held a solemn ceremony to commemorate the return of three ancestral skulls taken to France 128 years ago, including one believed to belong to King Toera of the Sakalava people, who was executed during the colonial invasion.
The remains, thought to be those of King Toera and two of his warriors, were seized by French forces in 1897 and transported to Paris, where they were kept at the national history museum as colonial war trophies.
France formally repatriated the skulls on Tuesday, acting under a 2023 law that permits the restitution of human remains taken during its imperial expansion.
The remains had arrived a day earlier, on Monday, September 1, in Antananarivo, where Sakalava representatives welcomed them at the airport. On Tuesday, the skulls, carried in boxes draped with Madagascar’s national flag, were taken in a ceremonial procession through the capital before being placed at the city’s mausoleum.
President Andry Rajoelina, alongside senior government officials and Sakalava dignitaries, attended the event.
Later this week, the remains will be transported to Belo Tsiribihina, a coastal town about 320 kilometres west of Antananarivo, where they will be laid to rest.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati had earlier explained during the Paris restitution ceremony that a joint scientific committee verified the skulls’ Sakalava origin, though it could only presume that one was King Toera’s.
The repatriation is part of France’s broader efforts to confront its colonial past. In recent years, ancestral remains and cultural artefacts have been returned to their countries of origin. Until 2023, each case required special parliamentary approval, but the new law has made the process simpler.
Madagascar, which was under French colonial rule for more than six decades before gaining independence in 1960, still has hundreds of ancestral remains held in France.
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