France on Tuesday returned three skulls to Madagascar, including one believed to be a king who was beheaded by French troops following a massacre in August 1897.
"These skulls entered the national collections in circumstances that clearly violated human dignity and in a context of colonial violence," said French Culture Minister Rachida Dati at a ceremony to send the relics home.
Her Madagascan counterpart, Volamiranty Donna Mara, described the return of the skulls as an "immensely significant" gesture.
"Their absence has been for more than a century an open wound in the heart of our island," Mara added.
Scientists confirmed the skulls were from the Sakalava people in western Madagascar. They said one was most likely that of King Toera, who was killed in his royal capital Dembi along with several hundred of his subjects.
"It is not clear whether he was killed by gunfire, and then his head was cut off, or whether he died because he was beheaded," historian Klara Boyer-Rossol told RFI.
"But his head disappeared. And so the descendants were deprived literally of the royal head of their ancestors."
Boyer-Rossol, an expert on the slave trade and slavery in the western Indian Ocean, said written records describe what happened in detail.
"We have quite extensive written archives which state very clearly that King Toera had laid down his arms and surrendered and so when he was attacked by Commander Augustin Gérard's troops, he was unarmed, which is why we refer to it as a massacre," he said.
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Skulls kept in museums
The skulls have been in Paris museums since 1897. They are being returned under a 2023 French law that makes it easier to hand back relics and artefacts.
"The fact that we have been able to reconstruct a context of colonial violence, identify them at least in part, link them at least to territorial group identities, and also agree that their presence in French museum reserves undermines the human dignity of their descendants," said Boyer-Rossol.
"All of this allows or justifies restitution, even if the individual identity of the head to be returned could not be formally established on a scientific level."
France has taken steps to face its colonial past by returning artefacts and human remains from its museums to countries of origin.
Since his election in 2017, President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged French abuses in Africa.
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During a visit to Antananarivo in April, Macron spoke of seeking forgiveness for France's colonisation of Madagascar, which declared independence in 1960 after more than 60 years of colonial rule.
"Our presence here is not innocent, and our history has been written... with deeply painful pages," Macron said at a remembrance ceremony at the former royal palace.
"Only you can make this journey of forgiveness," he said after touring the palace with Princess Fenosoa Ralandison Ratsimamanga.
"But we are creating the conditions for it, by making it possible... to mourn what is no longer."
Boyer-Rossol said some might see the return of the skulls as a form of reparation.
"In my position as a historian and researcher, I hope that this restitution will shed light on the history of these collections of human remains in French museums and also encourage support for provenance research so that we can find out more about their history."
