Descendants of freedom fighters executed and beheaded by colonial British forces in southern Africa have asked the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Cambridge to help locate their ancestors’ looted skulls.
Zimbabwean relatives of the first chimurenga leaders, who rose against British colonisers in the 1890s, long believed several skulls were taken to Britain. Eight descendants have formally asked the institutions to work with them to locate six ancestors’ remains and offered DNA samples to assist investigations.
The museum and university said in 2022 they had not identified any remains in their collections as belonging to the colonial resistance fighters, a finding that has caused dismay among descendants and Zimbabwean officials. In letters to the institutions this month the families said that questions over provenance could only be resolved by a joint taskforce of experts from Zimbabwe and the UK to examine contested remains and archival records.
“This is not only about the past,” the letters said. “It is about whether institutions today are willing to confront colonial violence honestly and repair its enduring harms. Until the remains of our ancestors are accounted for and returned, the suffering continues.”
One signatory is a descendant of Chief Chingaira Makoni, who opposed British settlers’ seizure of land in what is now Manicaland province. Makoni was captured after fighting forces of the British South Africa Company at Gwindingwi in 1896, executed by firing squad and beheaded; his skull is believed by descendants to be among remains later taken to England. The current Chief Makoni, Cogen Simbayi Gwasira, said his people remain aggrieved by the dehumanisation and urged British museums to be honest and return what was taken.
“If those remains are not part of us, the notion of subjugation remains in our minds. Because we feel if we are united with our ancestors, then that chapter of colonialism is closed,” Gwasira said. He also described how, in Shona tradition, ancestral spirits (vadzimu) are spiritual conduits to Mwari (God), and that the theft of heads has disrupted spiritual access.
A Guardian freedom-of-information investigation found UK universities, museums and councils hold at least 11,856 items of human remains from Africa: the University of Cambridge holds the most with at least 6,223 items and the Natural History Museum the second largest collection with at least 3,375. Robert Mugabe demanded a decade ago that the Natural History Museum return the resistance heroes’ skulls.
The museum’s trustees decided in November 2022 to repatriate all Zimbabwean human remains, but the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations said in a letter to the culture secretary that “no discernible progress has been made in the three years since that decision.” Dr Rudo Sithole, a former executive director of the International Council of African Museums and former director of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, said Zimbabwean experts did not believe the museum or Cambridge had done enough research to determine whether their collections include chimurenga heroes’ skulls.
“Because people long believed that all the chimurenga heroes’ remains were in the UK, we are now very worried that not even a single one has been acknowledged to be there,” Sithole said.
Other first chimurenga leaders included spirit mediums Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi, who were hanged in 1898. Sithole said the UK lagged behind some European countries such as France and Germany, which have funded provenance research into human remains taken from their former African colonies.
A Natural History Museum spokesperson said the museum is committed to repatriating the 11 individuals from Zimbabwe in its collections and is awaiting confirmation from the Zimbabwean government on next steps. “After extensive research we found no evidence to suggest that the remains are those of named individuals or are associated with particular historical episodes,” the spokesperson added, saying there are no other known or suspected ancestral remains from Zimbabwe held at the museum.
A University of Cambridge spokesperson said the vice-chancellor had written to families to acknowledge their grief and uncertainty and had assured descendants that the Duckworth Collection, the university’s largest set of human remains, did not hold any of the first chimurenga heroes. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment.
A 2024 report said Cambridge’s governing council had approved a claim to repatriate the remains of the only Zimbabwean individual identified in its African collections and that the university was awaiting a response from the Zimbabwean government.
