In a ceremony at a Cape Town museum, South Africa returned eight sets of human remains and a sacred soapstone bird carving to Zimbabwe—long-overdue justice for colonial-era plunder. The remains, exhumed as so-called “scientific specimens” over a century ago, included a tribal chief and a man believed to have been executed over witchcraft allegations. The Zimbabwe bird carving—the nation’s own symbol, depicted on its flag and currency—had been ripped from the ancient ruins of Great Zimbabwe in the late 19th century by colonial explorers and sold to British magnate Cecil John Rhodes. The carving represents the spiritual heart of a civilization that flourished between the 11th and 15th centuries. The restitution is part of a growing global movement for the repatriation of items stolen from African countries during colonization.
France 24
