Preserved heads found in a British museum are set to stir up a diplomatic controversy, reports Eddie Koch
Hard on the heels of well-publicised plans by Chief Nicholas Gcaleka to set off for Scotland in search of Xhosa warrior king Sandile’s skull comes news of another grisly discovery: five dried-out `bushmen’ heads stored in cardboard boxes in a back room of Britain’s Natural History Museum. The find by Cape Town artist Pippa Skotnes, made while doing research in London for an exhibition and book on the culture and history of South Africa’s Khoisan people (popularly known as Bushmen), is set to cause a diplomatic controversy as the new government comes under pressure to reclaim body parts of indigenous people housed in foreign museums. The Natural History Museum, part of the British Museum, has so far refused informal requests for the five heads — probably taken from the bodies of Khoisan people who were either killed or executed by British troops in the mid-1800s — to be borrowed or returned because the collection is so politically sensitive. Museum authorities have also denied permission for the macabre collection to be photographed. `The flesh of each head has been preserved, the skin of the neck cut and wrapped under the jaw, their hair disguises the stitches at the back of the scalp which was cut apart to remove and the clean the skull. Glass eyes were inserted between the lids in the sockets, though now, most of the eyes have been lost and those remaining have the appearance of owls’ eyes, too small to fill the cavities,’ says Skotnes in the introduction to her forthcoming book. `The faces are well preserved. The ears have shrunk a little and the noses are pinched, the hair of one head is falling away from its scalp, and the skin exfoliating. One of the heads has pierced ears and must have worn an earring … Her lips are drawn together slightly, the lips protruding forward, as if articulating a gasp. Her skin is deeply sunk beneath the cheek bones, her eye sockets empty and her number, Af62.415, is painted in ink on her forehead.’ The artist’s research indicates that the body parts were preserved using conventional taxidermy techniques. They are part of a collection of Khoisan heads and skulls sent by British forces to the Museum of the Army Medical Department at Fort Pitt in Chatham, where they were studied and described by a doctor called George Williamson in 1857. `It is more than likely these were trophy heads, collected in military action or after executions somewhere in the Cape,’ says Skotnes. `But the current custodians have no evidence that can testify to their provenance, nor the circumstances under which they came to be collected and preserved.’ The Griqua National Conference of South Africa, which claims to represent the interests of Khoisan descendants, has announced plans to demand the return of the British museum’s collection. `We are aware of their existence and are planning to get them back in time to come,’ says the organisation’s representative Kate Cloete. But museum authorities have already indicated to Skotnes they will not return the heads, especially as they are still of scientific value because they can be studied using DNA techniques. Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Brigitte Mabandla told the Mail & Guardian her ministry had not yet been drawn into the impending row between the museum and local cultural groups but she would personally support demands for the remains of indigenous people to be returned and re-buried with dignity in South Africa. The science and culture department has recently started a programme to locate surviving groups of Khoisan descendants, including itinerant clans of sheep-shearers in the Karoo known as Karretjiemense, so their cultures can be protected and social circumstances improved. Says Mabandla: `We have not yet devised a coherent policy on the question of human remains in museums. But we anticipated a groundswell of demands around this issue and have adopted a conscience position that they should be recalled in a proper way and buried with dignity, ideally at a cemetery which will have an on-site museum which records the science and history associated with them. It would be ideal for the government to negotiate the return of the remains.’ Robin Cocks, keeper of paleontology at the British museum, told M&G no formal demands had been received for the Khoisan collection to be returned. `We are under legal obligation in terms of the British Museum Act of 1963 which forbids us to dispose of any material in the museum,’ he added. But Skotnes says the museum’s attitude points to a `perceived hegemony of knowledge’ which accords narrow scientific interests a higher value than the political and historical importance of the skulls. `In suggesting that the images of heads may cause offence, the British Museum is not suggesting the heads should not be `used’. On the contrary they assert the rights of science to use them, but what they do deny is the value of any other context in which they might provoke insight or stimulate understanding.’ l In a meeting with French Minister of Co-operation Jacques Godrain this week, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Dr Ben Ngubane raised the issue of the return of the remains of Saartjie Baartman. Ngubane has said `that the return of South Africa to the international community marked the beginning of the process of healing and restoring of our national dignity and humanity. The process would not be complete while Saartjie Baartman’s remains were still kept in a museum.’