An investigation by the “New York Times” indicates that only 6 of the 24 skulls returned to Algeria by Paris in July 2020 were clearly identified as those of resistance fighters beheaded in the 19th century during French colonization.
While Emmanuel Macron paid tribute this Tuesday to the fighters of the Algerian war, a revelation from the New York Times could upset the new Franco-Algerian idyll. According to the American daily, only 6 of the 24 skulls returned by Paris in July 2020 were clearly identified as those of Algerian resistance fighters killed in the 19th century by French colonial troops. “The others are not or are of uncertain origin.”
These mortuary remains also remained the property of France after their delivery, indicates the media, which is based on documents obtained from the Museum of Natural History and the French government. Neither country has publicly acknowledged these facts, “as they seek to derive diplomatic advantage from restitution.”
War Trophies
The return to Algeria of these skulls had however been celebrated with great pomp. On the eve of the commemoration of the 58th anniversary of Algerian independence, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune came in person to welcome the remains on the tarmac of Algiers airport, bowing before the coffins in a solemn military ceremony. . These are “the remains of 24 leaders of the popular resistance, who have been deprived of their natural and human right to be buried for more than 170 years”, assured the head of state.
Three years earlier, Emmanuel Macron had pledged, during his first official visit to Algiers, that France would return the skulls of Algerian martyrs, considered in the 19th century as war trophies by the French military and preserved until then. in the collections of the Natural History Museum in Paris. A way to calm the tumultuous relations between the two countries, while Algerian and French historians have been calling for this return for years. This restitution was once again welcomed during the visit of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, on October 9 and 10, to Algiers.
“In catimini”
For the New York Times, this “imperfect return” can be explained by a broader problem of often “secret, confused and politically opportune” restitutions from France, which is trying to reshape its relationship with the African continent: “Some academics and deputies are increasingly concerned about restitutions which seem to escape scientific and legislative rigor. Quoted in the article, the French senator Catherine Morin-Desailly regrets this repatriation “botched, done on the sly”.The Franco-Algerian committee set up to determine the remains that could be returned to Algeria had identified, in June 2020, 24 skulls likely to be returned, out of a total of 45 dating from colonization. “But the search was cut short by Emmanuel Macron’s office, who wanted the skulls returned before July 5, Algeria’s independence day.”
Contacted by Liberation, the historian Benjamin Stora, is more nuanced: “How to distinguish between the conscious anticolonial political resistant, killed with arms in hand, and the bandit opposed to colonization? The boundary between the two is extremely thin. For the author of the report on the memory of colonization and the war in Algeria, the restitution of the 24 skulls, whether or not they belong to “resisters”, participated in the deepening of knowledge on “the horror that was the French colonization of the 1850s”.
Due to the inalienable nature of national collections, only exceptional laws can guarantee the return of an object or a set of items. The agreement between Paris and Algiers also stipulated that the mortuary remains had been loaned to Algeria “for a period of five years”, pending restitution inscribed in the law, which still does not exist.
