“We are no longer ready to wait for the restitution of the bodies of our ancestors after a hundred and thirty-three years of suffering” | EUROtoday

ILya greater than 100 and thirty years, as a part of ethnographic and colonial exhibitions in Paris, notably within the zoological backyard of acclimatization of Bois de Boulogne or within the main common exhibitions (1878, 1889, 1900 …) or colonial (1894, 1896, 1906, 1907 …), populations of the entire French Empire had been exhibited. The objective was to entertain guests, legitimize colonization, present “specimens” (alive or useless) for students … Some will die in these human zoos.

Their our bodies had been then studied by anthropologists, medical doctors and craniologists earlier than ending their deadly journeys in museum reserves. Since then, their descendants from all around the world need to discover and repatriate the our bodies and the “remains” of those ancestors. Nothing is extra regular than desirous to honor your useless, to recollect, pay a closing tribute to his ascendants. Some are from French ultramarine territories, and particularly Guyana.

While the colonial previous is alert on all continents, particularly in Africa with quite a few requests for return of cultural items, and a number of other repatriations of “human remains” have taken place (or are underway) throughout the framework of proactive analysis within the French administration and museums (together with the Museum of Man), the authorized and parliamentary debate on the return of those “remains” appears to be blocked within the ultramarin areas.

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