Berlin's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to repatriate nearly 600 West African skulls after provenance research

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin has announced plans to return hundreds of West African skulls following extensive provenance research. Marion Ackermann, the foundation's president, stated that human remains should return to their places of origin whenever possible. Research conducted over several years examined 574 skulls, with 336 identified as originating from present-day Cameroon, 151 from Togo, 23 from Ghana, and one from Nigeria. Sixty-three skulls could not be precisely attributed. The foundation revealed that many skulls came from workers who died during German railway construction in Cameroon, while others were taken from looted necropolises or battlefields. Some cases involved executions by Germans. These skulls are part of a historical anthropological collection transferred from Berlin's Charité university hospital in 2011. The foundation has also studied 1,100 remains from former German East Africa, though repatriation efforts there have stalled due to import permit issues in countries like Tanzania. In recent years, the foundation has returned human remains to the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer described provenance research and repatriation as central concerns in addressing colonialism's legacy, calling the West African project a beacon initiative.