UK Agrees to Return Remains of Zimbabwean Fighters

(MENAFN) The United Kingdom has consented to the return of the skeletal remains of Zimbabwean resistance leaders who were killed by British colonial troops during a 19th-century rebellion against European colonists, according to local news outlets.

These remains, including the skulls of influential figures such as Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi—both prominent spiritual and revolutionary leaders—were taken to Britain during the First Chimurenga uprising, which occurred between 1896 and 1897.

These skulls were removed and kept as wartime trophies. Efforts to secure their return began over ten years ago.

In 2015, Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert Mugabe, harshly criticized the UK for displaying decapitated heads in a national museum, labeling it as one of “the highest forms of racist moral decadence, sadism, and human insensitivity.”

The issue became a long-standing point of cultural and political tension between the two nations.

On Sunday, a news agency cited Raphael Faranisi, who serves as the permanent secretary for Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, stating that British institutions had now agreed to repatriate the ancestral remains.

Reports indicate that at least eleven skulls are housed in the Natural History Museum in London, with two others kept at the University of Cambridge’s Duckworth Laboratory.

Additional remains are believed to be stored in an unidentified museum in Switzerland.

“We have started the first phase of the process, which we hope will be done in the shortest time possible,” Faranisi informed the publication.

He also mentioned that discussions are underway regarding the construction of a secure facility in Zimbabwe to safeguard and preserve the returned relics.

This development follows a recent statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, which confirmed that it had organized a meeting to address the “possible repatriation of Zimbabwean human remains still dotted in British museums.”

In a post on X last month, the ministry announced that a formal plan had been outlined to guide the recovery process.

MENAFN14082025000045017167ID1109928902