France returns 100 year-old skulls to Madagascar

France has returned three skulls to Madagascar more than a century after they were taken, including one believed to be that of a 19th-century Malagasy king who was beheaded by French troops. CNN reports that the repatriation marks the first time France has implemented a 2023 law enabling the return of human remains to a country for funeral purposes. France conquered the kingdoms of the Sakalava people in western Madagascar in the 1890s and integrated the Sakalava into a newly formed French colony. One of the three Sakalava skulls returned to Madagascar, which gained independence from France in 1960, is presumed to be that of King Toera, the French Ministry of Culture said in a statement. He was executed by French troops in 1897.