CT museum to host ceremony for return of remains from Khoi, San descendants

A historic homecoming ceremony will be hosted at the Iziko Museum in Cape Town on Friday, as ancestral remains from the Khoi and San descendants return home.  

The remains arrived in the country on Thursday night, where community representatives conducted a private cultural ritual to receive their ancestors.  

The occasion marks the return of the remains, which were unethically exhumed between 1868 and 1924.  

They were previously held at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, Scotland.

Speaking on behalf of the South African Heritage Resource Agency, Nokulunga Buthelezi said this ceremony has been enabled by the National Policy on Repatriation of Human Remains and Heritage Objects.

“This is the first repatriation of human remains which are held in institutions. This is an effort of rehumanising human remains that have been objectified and were taken unethically through exhumations over a century ago.”  

Buthelezi i added that Friday’s homecoming is going to be the first under the policy implementation of repatriating human remains.

“These ancestors, they are predominantly of the Northern Cape population. So, from the six that have been repatriated in Scotland, only one of those is from Western Cape and they are decent members of the San, Nama, Griekwa and Korana populations.”