On Tuesday, South Africa returned to Zimbabwe ancestral human remains and a centuries-old stone sculpture of its sacred national emblem, the Zimbabwe Bird, which were stolen more than 100 years ago during the colonial era.
This restitution is part of a global initiative to repatriate objects looted from African countries during colonization.
Eight coffins draped with the Zimbabwean flag were displayed at a handover ceremony held in a Cape Town museum, attended by officials from both countries.
Little was known about the remains, except that they came from people exhumed to serve as "scientific specimens," officials said.
One of them was believed to be a tribal chief whose skull and jawbone were removed in 1910, said Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie.
"He was someone's chief, the ancestor of many people. He sat in a museum drawer for 116 years," said Mr. McKenzie.
Another is said to be a man murdered on the basis of accusations of witchcraft.
"They were removed from their graves — they were not found, nor were they given away," said Mr. McKenzie.
Once repatriated, the remains will be returned "where they belong," said Zimbabwean government representative Reverend Paul Damasane.
Identity and mind
The soapstone sculpture of a Zimbabwean bird, returned at the event, was the first in a series of pieces looted from the stone ruins of the ancient Great Zimbabwe complex, built between the 11th and 13th centuries, officials said.
A British explorer had removed it from its base at the end of the 19th century and sold it to the British mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.
It was displayed in Rhodes' estate in Cape Town, bequeathed to the government upon his death in 1902.
"Nearly 140 years after the first one was taken away and sold to Cecil John Rhodes, this very same statue... is finally returning home," said the South African Ministry of Culture.
South Africa returned four other ancient sculptures depicting these birds the year after the former British colony gained independence in 1980, officials said.
The original grey-green birds were about 33 centimeters (13 inches) tall and most were perched on stone columns more than a meter high in Great Zimbabwe, the center of a once-mighty civilization.
They constitute the national emblem of Zimbabwe, appearing on banknotes, coins and the national flag, and are regarded as such.
Great Zimbabwe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the southeast of the country, is currently undergoing a $5 million renovation funded by the French Development Agency, with completion expected in the coming weeks.
This complex is the second largest pre-colonial structure still existing in Africa after the pyramids of Egypt.
