Germany to repatriate skulls to West Africa

[in German] The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) in Berlin is to return hundreds of skulls to Cameroon, Togo, Ghana and Nigeria. The origin of the human remains has been researched for several years. "If at all possible, the human bones should be able to return to where they came from," said foundation president Marion Ackermann.

Of 574 skulls examined, 336 skulls could have been assigned to areas in today’s Cameroon, 151 to today’s Togo, 23 to today’s Ghana and one to today’s Nigeria.

In the case of 63, no more precise assignment was possible.

“A significant part of the skulls come from workers who died during German railway construction in Cameroon, but also from robbed necropolises or battlefields,” the foundation said.

“In very isolated cases, there have been executions by Germans.”

According to the SPK, about 1,100 skulls from the former colony of German East Africa were already examined for their origin at the beginning of 2023.

This means that the history of around 1,700 of the total 7,700 skulls has been processed, according to the foundation.

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Decolonize Berlin is making a database We Want Them Back with info, so far, from 19 Institutions (from Köln, Tübingen, Freiburg im Breisgau, Strasbourg, Berlin, Hamburg, Marburg, Jena, Gotha) with ancestral remains.