(MENAFN) South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile has advocated for the return of human remains and cultural artifacts that were removed from the country during colonial times and the apartheid era, according to the office of the South African president on Wednesday.

Addressing Heritage Day celebrations, Mashatile highlighted that numerous traditional and Khoisan leaders were killed in resistance wars, with their remains subsequently taken overseas.

“To this day, some of these sacred human remains of our worthy ancestors remain locked away as prisoners of ‘science’ in museum cupboards across the world, still awaiting their rightful repatriation,” he stated, citing the 2002 return of Sarah Baartman’s remains from France as a pivotal moment.

Baartman, a Khoisan woman who was displayed in Europe in the 19th century, has become a symbol of restored dignity and national remembrance.

Mashatile added that authorities are actively identifying museums and institutions that still hold South African cultural items, aiming to initiate formal repatriation initiatives.

“This is a call to decolonize our museums, to Africanize them through a people-centered process of knowledge production and co-curation for a new era, a post-colonial era,” he emphasized.

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