Germany offers to return 1,000 human skulls to former east African colonies

Berlin’s museum authority announced that it was ready to return hundreds of human skulls from the former colony of German East Africa, after studying the remains to establish to which present-day countries they belong.

Scientists examined 1,135 skulls at Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History, assigning 904 to areas that are now part of Rwanda, 202 to Tanzania and 22 to Kenya.

Another seven skulls remain unattributed.

German East Africa, established in the 1880s and broken up after the end of World War I in 1918, included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, mainland Tanzania and part of Mozambique.

According to Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees many of Berlin’s museums: “We are ready for immediate restitution and are now waiting for signals from the countries of origin.”