2023-08-09 11:57:45
Nations have nothing to fear from looking their past in the face, quite the contrary. The story published in The world on August 8 and dedicated to the fate of the remains of Amerindians from Guyana kept in the reserves of the Musée de l’homme for more than a century bears witness to this. Shown in human zoos of sinister memory, these Amerindians died of cold in Paris in 1892. Their remains were then found in French collections, where they fell into oblivion. The memory work of their descendants, the lucidity of scientists and the foresight of legislators are about to get them out.
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Following obstinate work carried out by elected officials from all sides in the Senate under the aegis of the centrist senator for Seine-Maritime Catherine Morin-Desailly, who was already at the origin of the restitution of Maori heads kept in museums in the hexagon, a decisive step was indeed taken on June 13th. It should allow France to catch up on a regrettable delay. Unanimously, the Senate adopted in first reading, in consultation with the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, a legislative framework to facilitate this essential work of repairing the damage of the colonial era.
Because these remains are legally collector’s items and therefore inalienable, each restitution has so far involved the vote by Parliament of an ad hoc law. A real obstacle, while requests from foreign countries concerned could multiply. At the end of this legislative process, provided that they meet strictly defined criteria, these State-to-State restitutions will be validated by a simple decree.
Inevitable blind spots
As this framework initially only concerned foreign human remains, the Senate Culture Committee added a provision which should allow it to be extended to human remains from overseas territories. And therefore to respond to the painful problem posed by the Amerindian remains of Guyana.
This progress creates duties for the State. The long and difficult work of inventory that it involves in all the museums of France supposes human resources which far exceed the current forces, incapable in the state of carrying out this verification and the necessary identifications within a reasonable time. The reserves of the National Museum of Natural History contain more than 23,000 human remains, whether complete skeletons or individual pieces, including skulls. These remains originated for 7% of them from the African continent and for 5% from overseas territories.
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Even extended to these last remnants, the bill is not able to meet all the challenges. One of its craftsmen in the Senate, the communist senator of Hauts-de-Seine Pierre Ouzoulias, thus recalled during the debates that posed by the skeleton long exposed as a trophy of the young assassin of General Jean-Baptiste Kléber in Egypt, Soleyman El-Halebi, sentenced to the torture of the pal, and who has not been the subject of any request for restitution to date. Despite these inevitable blind spots, we can only welcome this progress which draws lessons from the evolution of ethical reflections on the status of human bodies post mortem and on respect for their dignity. It will constitute a form of reparation due to the descendants of the victims of human zoos.
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