Namibia: Govt Wants Skulls Returned

Posted to the web 24 July 2008 Berlin Former Namibian ambassador to Berlin and current Director General of the National Planning Commission, Dr Peter Katjavivi, has demanded that German universities return dozens of human skulls - remains of the colonial-era Herero massacre that are held in their archives. Public broadcaster ARD (Arbeitsgemeinsschaft der offentlich-rechclichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) reported late on Monday that the skulls were spirited away to Germany in the years after the 1904 killings for "scientific research" aimed at proving the racial superiority of whites to blacks. It said 47 skulls are still stored at the Medical History Museum at the Charite teaching hospital in Berlin and at least a dozen more at Freiburg University in southwestern Germany. "According to a UNESCO... [read full story]