Returning bones to Madagascar doesn’t just right a colonial wrong: why a royal skull still has power

France’s Ministry of Culture handed over three Malagasy skulls to Harea Georges Kamamy, the reigning king (ampagnito) of the Sakalava people in Menabe, a western region of Madagascar, on 26 August 2025.

The skulls had been held for more than a century in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris.

One was identified as belonging to Toera, the Menabe king killed by French colonial troops in 1897.

When handed over, it was placed in his tomb to complete his skeleton.

A “bathing of the relics” ceremony (fitampoha) completes the process of the late ruler becoming an ancestor.

This ceremony also consecrates the accession of the new sovereign.

Anthropologist Maurizio Esposito La Rossa’s research on the Sakalava monarchy has resulted in a new book, Sovereigns of Gold, Spirits of Silver: Ritual, History and Hierarchy in Madagascar (HAU Books, in press).

This work informs his explanation of what the return of the skulls means, spiritually and politically, and why it has proved divisive.

What do physical relics mean to the Sakalava people? Among the Sakalava people of the Menabe region, royal relics ( dady ) have been central to political life since the first kingdoms were founded in the 17th century.

Made from fragments of the skull and other parts of the deceased sovereign’s body, relics carry the generative power ( hasina ) of royal ancestors.

It is this power that legitimises the rule of the living king.

The relics are made by ritual specialists drawn from local groups, and allow the dead sovereign to return as a spirit, or tromba .

It’s a practice that embodies the alliance between the political power of the “ stranger-king ” (anthropologist Marshall Sahlins’ term for a ruler who originates from elsewhere) and the ritual authority of the “masters of the land” who legitimise him.

What has your research in Madagascar explored? My fieldwork in Madagascar (2015-2025) focused on how royal rituals reframe the dynastic conflicts between the “gold” and “silver” princely branches, hence my book’s title.