These remains are a small group of thousands of illegally removed remains of indigenous people during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. After they were illegally dug from their graves, the remains would be traded or donated to newly established museums and universities.
For the San & Khoi people, these violations did not begin in the modern apartheid era but date back centuries with colonial conquest, land dispossession, cultural erasure, removal, race-based scientific research, and the exploitation of ancestral remains.
The process of repatriation and reburial of these human remains has been jointly facilitated by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) and its entities: the South African Heritage Resources Agency and Iziko Museums.
The Northern Cape Task Team, a representative body of various Khoi and San cultural groupings, has provided the necessary cultural guidance and oversight.
This repatriation programme forms part of a broader national commitment to honour those who sacrificed their lives in the fight for freedom, ensuring that they are returned to their homeland with the dignity and respect they deserve.
“This is not merely a burial. It is a restoration of dignity long denied,” another leader, James Mapanga, said. He is the spokesperson of San, Nama, Griqua and Korana populations.
The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, has announced the recognition of Khoi-San traditional names on official documentation in a move that reinforces the inclusion and dignity of Khoi-San communities in South Africa.
The process of the designation of the site and the reburial was approved by the leaders of the communities involved at the end of 2004. In spite of this, some local residents had doubts about the way the reburials had been prepared:
- “No reburial of ancestral bones without us, on behalf of us, or for us.” This was the firm and clear message from Steinkopf residents about the much-discussed reburial of Khoi and San ancestral remains at Kinderlê, just outside Steinkopf, Namakwaland.
- Locals believe that the arrangements for the reburial are being hijacked by government authorities in the Northern Cape. Captain Paul Swartbooi of the Nama people: “The community has expressed serious concern and dissatisfaction with the current process regarding the planned reburial.”
