In France, the Senate begins to examine with hearings this Tuesday, April 28, a bill which should allow the repatriation to French Guiana of the remains of Kali’na Amerindians. These bones were kept in the galleries of the Musée de l’Homme in Paris since the end of the 19th century. The government announced that it would support this text. A first step for their descendants who have been fighting for years.
Monday, April 13, the Minister of Culture Catherine Pgard announced that the government would support a Senate bill going in this direction, and that “the government will initiate the accelerated procedure” on this text, carried by centrist senator Catherine Morin-Desailly. “After 133 years of waiting, this is a signal that we welcome positively,” said Guyana MP Jean-Victor Castor, who recalled how Kali’na women, men and children had been “torn from their land, taken to France and exhibited in human zoos.”
These bones tell the story of the Kali’nas, as one of the descendants, Corinne Toka Devilliers, at the head of the Moliko Alet+po association, explains to RFI. “Our ancestors – numbering 33 – were brought 130 years ago, in 1892, on behalf of the Acclimatation zoological garden, during the colonial exhibitions. Unfortunately, eight paid with their lives and the human remains of six of them are currently in the Musée de l’Homme. We therefore asked them to return home,” she explains.
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“Our history must not remain hidden”
Once returned, the remains will join a memorial inaugurated in August 2024 in Iracoubo, in central Guyana. “This restitution is very important because our history must not remain hidden,” Cécile Kouyouri, traditional chief of the village of Bellevue-Yanu in Iracoubo, where the memorial is located, told AFP. “Our ancestors suffered as much as the slaves and it took a lot of work for this traumatic history to be recognized.”
For years, this woman has been fighting for the return of her ancestors to Guyana. In 2023, a framework law, which authorizes the restitution of human remains upon requests made by foreign countries, is adopted. But overseas territories are excluded. “A law is absolutely necessary because there is the inalienability of property. We cannot recover our bones, our ancestors, without there being a downgrading of these human remains to be returned to the people, communities or countries requested,” adds Corinne Toka Devilliers.
The bill specifically targeting Kali’na human remains, co-signed by senators Max Brisson (Les Républicains) and Pierre Ouzoulias (communist), provides that the remains “cease to be part” of the museum’s collections, and be handed over within a year to Guyana “for funeral purposes”. Jean-Victor Castor warned that he would remain attentive to the “concrete translation” of the text, which will therefore be examined in the Senate on May 18.
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Originally published at Almouwatin.com
