Returning bones to Madagascar doesn’t just right a colonial wrong: why a royal skull still has power

France’s Ministry of Culture handed over three Malagasy skulls to Harea Georges Kamamy, the reigning king (ampagnito) of the Sakalava people in Menabe, a western region of Madagascar, on 26 August 2025. The skulls had been held for more than a century in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. One was identified as belonging to Toera, the Menabe king killed by French colonial troops in 1897. When handed over, it was placed in his tomb to complete his skeleton. A “bathing of the…