On the Repatriation of African Ancestors’ Sacred Human Remains From Euro-Western Countries

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the recent call by Minister Gayton McKenzie and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) for public assistance in identifying the remains of South Africans who died in exile during the anti-apartheid struggle. These include liberation fighters, cultural icons, visual artists and indigenous peoples whose mortal remains lie in unmarked graves on foreign soil, despite their contributions to the freedom we all enjoy today.

While the EFF fully supports the repatriation of our heroes and heroines for dignified reburial on home soil, we are deeply concerned by what appears to be performative posturing by the Minister. The issue of ancestral repatriation is not symbolic it is a matter of national identity, redress, and historical justice.

On 24 November 2024, the EFF formally submitted to the Minister detailed information on the grave site of William “Bloke” Modisane, a towering literary figure of the Drum era who passed away on 1 March 1986 in Dortmund, Germany. We requested a clear plan and timeline for his repatriation. To date eight (8) months later his remains have not been returned.

In the same month, we alerted the Minister to the historical theft of five (5) full human skeletons from graves in Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape (EC), which were taken to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) around 1910 and later shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. under the racist “skull-for-a-skull” exchange program between the two museums. These remains, stolen for pseudoscientific race research practice sought to undermine black people’s human dignity, have yet to be returned.

Furthermore, the DSAC is called upon to work closely with the National Prosecution Authority Missing in Action Task Team to bring closure to the fallen heroes of the Wankie/Spolilo Campaign in Zimbabwe. The families have not been visited nor closure brought to them. There was never compensation to the families of those gallant fighters to date nor a symbolic return from the battlefield of their spirits. Additionally, the family of Comrade Modikwa Frans Ratsoma (MK Phooka)  and many others who fought alongside the ZIPRA/MK Luthuli detachment in the 1968 battles are awaiting with eager for information on the spot where their bones are buried in shallow graves made by the white Rhodesian security forces.

The continued inaction and tangible outcomes on all these matters and others similar to them reflects a failure of leadership and seriousness. We call on the Minister to treat the repatriation of ancestral remains as a matter of urgency, not ceremony. We further urge all museums in South Africa that still house human remains of African ancestors, whether collected ethically or unethically, to return these remains to their rightful communities and families.

It is deeply disturbing that institutions such as Iziko Museums of South Africa one of the oldest museums in the country continue to hold 1,266 human remains in their collection. Of these, 225 are ancestral remains that were unethically collected from across South Africa (particularly the Northern Cape), as well as Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Australia for pseudo race scientific purposes.

The continued possession of these sacred remains of African people is a stark reminder of the colonial violations that dehumanised indigenous African peoples, and it demands urgent redress. This constitutes a crime against humanity, and institutions such as this along with others who engaged in similar nefarious practices must be held accountable for the historical and ongoing violations they have committed against African people.

Colonial institutions must no longer serve as custodians of our ancestors, treating their remains as objects of scientific curiosity. It is unacceptable that colonial institutions, such as museums, continue to imprison the mortal remains of our ancestors treated as ‘specimens’ under discredited pseudo-scientific race theories that sought to depict African people as subhuman and justify colonial brutality.

We must reject, unequivocally, the indignity of our ancestors being reduced to ‘objects’ of scientific curiosity, denied the humanity and reverence they deserve. True freedom and justice remain incomplete while African ancestral remains languish in display cases and storage vaults of museums, ‘scientific’ institutions and universities, both in this country and abroad. We say: never again shall our dignity be compromised by institutions that once legitimised the violence and dehumanisation of our people.

The era of storing African ancestor’s sacred human remains in glass cabinets must end, now and museums must be decolonised, by hook or by crook. True freedom and dignity cannot exist while the remains of our forebears languish in museological prisons born of discredited race science. Repatriation is not a symbolic act it is a necessary restoration of humanity, dignity, and sovereignty.

The EFF demands immediate and measurable action from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Our ancestors must come home.

The EFF has been vocal about the need for transparency in government dealings.

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