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| The Paris Museum of Natural History offers an exhibit of some 18,000 heads of Africans killed by colonial soldiers (@nathanlean). ISIS is perceived as a virulent terror group due to their penchant for beheading victims |
According to a report by African Mugabe said the British government had since invited Zimbabwe to repatriate the remains, adding that Government would collect them begrudgingly and bury them at the country's sacred shrines.
However, Guardian reports that whereas British officials acknowledged that discussion about the repatriation of Zimbabwean human remains began last year, they did not say whether a final decision had been made.
The British embassy in Harare was more cautious. It said: “The issue of the potential repatriation of Zimbabwean human remains was first discussed by British and Zimbabwean authorities in December 2014. The UK has since invited Zimbabwe to appoint technical experts to meet their museum counterparts in London, in order to discuss some remains of Zimbabwean origin. It is not yet clear whether these remains are related to the events, places or people referred to in the president’s speech this week.
“We await the appointment of the required Zimbabwean experts in order to take this forward. This story highlights the importance of following due process when handling sensitive museum collections.”
While addressing thousands of Zimbabweans who thronged the National Heroes Acre in Harare yesterday for Heroes Day celebrations, Mugabe remarked that sacred shrines such as the National Heroes Acre were a preserve of heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country and were consistently loyal to the liberation cause.
"Tanzwa kuti misoro yevanhu vedu, vakuru vedu, yanga yakaunganidzwa mumuseum kuBritain. Varikuti tizoitora. Tichaitora tichigunun'una kuti makaidimurireyi? WaMbuya Nehanda hameno kuti tichauwana here pakati pacho? (We are told that skulls of our people, our leaders, are being displayed in a British museum and they are inviting us to repatriate them. We will repatriate them, but with bitterness, questioning the rationale behind decapitating them)," he said.
"The remains of our heroes, sacred to us, which were taken out of the country during the colonial period, have now been identified in the British History Museum.
"The remains, skulls, we strongly believe are the skulls of beheaded heads of Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi, Chingaira Makoni, Chinengundu Mashayamombe, Mapondera, Mashonganyika and Chitekedza Chiwashira, among others.
"The First Chimurenga leaders, whose heads were decapitated by the colonial occupying force, were then dispatched to England, to signify British victory over, and subjugation of, the local population. Surely, keeping decapitated heads as war trophies, in this day and age, in a National History Museum, must rank among the highest forms of racist moral decadence, sadism and human insensitivity."
President Mugabe said once the necessary processes to repatriate the remains were complete, Government would consult with traditional leaders about how to bury them at the sacred shrines in Zimbabwe.
He said he took great exception to some Zimbabweans who denigrated heroes and heroines and the sacred shrines where the gallant fighters were laid to rest.
"The misguided elements, whom we share Zimbabwe with, have the absurdity and fertile imagination to suggest who, in their unsolicited and weird and wayward opinions, should be declared a hero," said President Mugabe.
"Here and now, such people better be advised to stop entertaining themselves with mirages, that only exist in the minds of the misguided. Let me make it abundantly clear that these sacred shrines are solely for our heroes who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of this country.
"Heroes were, and are, consistently loyal to the liberation cause, have their patriotism, selflessness, courage, determination never questionable, or in any doubt, at any point in time. Heroes do not become heroes after they are dead."
President Mugabe added: "Hu hero hahumuki munhu afa. Kana urigamba chairo unozviratidza urimupenyu nebasa rako. Vanhu vanozokukudza chete paunezenge wafa. Kwete kuti wanga uchiita chi MDC nekoko uko kana chimwe chibokawo. Kwazvo, kwazvo chiboka chinotumirwa mari nevemhiri kuti vakanganise ndima dzatiri kurima dzevhu rakatorwa nevanhu ridzokere kuvarungu zvekare.
"Varipo varikudaro. Murikuzvinzwa muhurukuro dziri kuitwa ku MDC. Wozoti apa wafa zvonzi aah muiteyi hero! Wei? Nokuti akangoitawo politics chete? Handizvo ba. Ava inyanzvi ka idzi dzatirikukudza nhasi uno.
"They proved to be heroes as they fought, lived for, and died for the liberation of Zimbabwe. They never abandoned battle! They never were rebels. They never were the weak-hearted. They never were selfish, or sell outs, but instead they were abundantly generous with their sacrifice for their country."
Repatriation of human remains is a fraught legacy of European colonialism in Africa. In 2011, Germany returned 20 skulls to Namibia that had once been used for racial experiments. The plane carrying the skulls back was greeted by warriors on horseback who shouted war cries. But hundreds more skulls remain in Germany.
A year later, the remains of a Khoisan couple, Klaas and Trooi Pienaar, were repatriated to South Africa from Austria. The Pienaars’ bodies were illegally exhumed and shipped to Austria in 1909, where they became part of racial “research” by the Austrian scientist Rudolf Poch.
The Herald, a prominent Zimbabwean newspaper said it had tracked down the great-grandson of Chitekedza Chishawira, who was killed by the British during the first chimurenga in 1897. Tichadii Ziwengwa Chishawira told the paper: “It is painful for us. My great-grandfather died after he was tied to the leg of a horse. The whites accused him of rebellion after he resisted and fought white supremacy. The decapitation of our forefather is an indictment of how insensitive imperialists were.”
Chief Mashayamombe, whose great-grandfather Mashayamombe was also killed, was quoted as saying that the displaying of human skulls in museums was taboo in African culture and showed the brutality of the settlers. “That shows disrespect for our culture,” he told the Herald. “That is why I have written a letter to the government, even to Her Majesty the Queen, saying I want the skull of my leader. So, we welcome the development being undertaken to return them. But we are not happy with the attitude of the imperialists. Even the killing itself was brutal.”
The Natural History Museum said it was not clear whether any remains in its collection are related to the skulls referred to by Mugabe.
A spokesperson said: “The Natural History Museum cares for 20,000 human remains in its collection. They are referred to by scientists both at the museum and internationally for research.
“We have a policy of considering formal requests for return of human remains to their places of origin, under the provisions of Section 47 of the Human Tissue Act 2004, and we have been involved in a series of significant repatriations.
“This is a thorough process that involves establishing the correct provenance of remains based on complex historical sources.
“It is not yet clear whether any remains in the Museum collection are related to the events, places or people referred to in President Mugabe’s speech this week.”
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