South Africa Reburies Remains of 63 Khoisan People
Why this is here: The University of Glasgow returned plaster face casts alongside remains, acknowledging the full scope of its historical collection of Khoisan ancestral remains.
South Africa reburied the remains of 63 Khoisan people on Monday in Steinkopf, Northern Cape province. President Cyril Ramaphosa attended the ceremony at a historic monument. The remains included individuals whose bodies were sent to European museums over a century ago.
Six of the remains were repatriated from the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum in Scotland. The other remains came from South Africa’s Iziko Museums. Glasgow also returned two plaster face casts and a smoking pipe excavated from a burial ground.
Traditional leaders offered prayers during the ceremony. James Mapanga stated the reburial restores dignity long denied to the Khoisan people.
The Khoisan have sought recognition as South Africa’s first indigenous people. The exhumed remains from Glasgow date between 1868 and 1924.