London's Natural History Museum and Cambridge University agreed to cooperate with Harare to repatriate human remains of Zimbabwean origin that were seized during the colonial era.The statement followed negotiations between the delegation from Zimbabwe with the officials of both institutions.
Zimbabweans are searching for the skulls of anti-colonial leaders from the late 19th century that were taken to Britain as trophies during the uprising against British rule in the 1890s.
One of these 'heroes' is Charwe Nyakashikana, better known as Mbuya (Grandmother) Nehanda, a medium of the revered ancestral spirit of Nehanda, a symbol of the anti-colonial struggle. She was arrested and executed by hanging after being accused of killing a British official. It is assumed that after the hanging Nehanda was beheaded.
Going through the archives, the Natural History Museum found the remains of 11 people "that appear to be originally from Zimbabwe," but its records do not link them to Nehanda. The discovery, however, is said to include three skulls allegedly taken from Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, in 1893. Cambridge University's Duckworth Laboratory was not as specific, simply stating that it has "a small number of human remains from Zimbabwe."
During the colonial era, the British took the skulls of the dead and even dug them up from their graves, either as trophies, or for research into the pseudoscience of phrenology, which was popular in Europe in the 19th century. Phrenology explored the idea that there is a connection between the human psyche and the structure of the surface of his or her skull.
Phrenological societies used to collect skulls to develop their theory, which some extended to racial classification. Some researchers intended to prove that people from some parts of the world had skull shapes determining them as inferior.
Today, there's a three-meter statue in memory of Nedhanda in the center of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, where she was executed. At its unveiling in 2021, President Emmerson Mnangagwa pledged to keep working to return her skull and the skulls of other national heroes.