South Africa reburies looted human remains recovered from European museums
The remains were repatriated from European museums over successive periods.
President Cyril Ramaphosa officiated the reburial of 63 Khoi and San ancestral human remains at the Kinderlê Monument in Steinkopf, marking a significant step in South Africa’s ongoing efforts to address historical injustices.
The remains were repatriated from museums across Europe over several years, authorities revealed.
“These remains are a small group of thousands of illegally removed remains of indigenous people during the late 19th century and the early 20th century,” says a presidential statement.
Many of the remains were exhumed without consent and later traded or donated to museums and universities abroad.
‘Harmful colonial practice’
“The remains were repatriated from European museums over successive periods — a profound act of restoration, dignity, and healing,” authorities added.
The ceremony forms part of South Africa’s Human Rights Month commemorations, which honour the struggle against dispossession, violence and the denial of dignity.
“In October 2025, the ancestral remains of Khoi and San individuals were repatriated from the University of Glasgow, where they had been taken between 1868 and 1924 without consent as part of harmful colonial practices,” South Africa’s Department of Sport, Arts and Culture revealed in a statement.
President Ramaphosa, in his statement, underscored the deep historical roots of these violations: “For the San & Khoi people, these violations did not begin in the modern apartheid era but date back centuries with colonial conquest, land dispossession, cultural erasure, removal, race-based scientific research, and the exploitation of ancestral remains.”
The repatriation and reburial process has been led by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, working alongside the South African Heritage Resources Agency and Iziko Museums of South Africa with cultural oversight provided by the Northern Cape Task Team, representing various Khoi and San communities.
Officials say the programme is part of a broader national commitment to restore dignity to South Africa’s First Peoples and to ensure that those whose remains were taken are returned home with respect.