Europeans Stole Over 40,000 Dead African Warriors And Kept Them In Museums All Over Europe
October 11, 2020 1387
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If there is anything more
dehumanizing than killing an African, it is refusing him or her the natural rights
of been buried in the land of his birth - the land of their ancestors.
When one talks about the
wickedness of the European (Caucasians at large) towards the black man, often
detractors would blame us saying we are playing victim. But they do not
understand how pained we are. They do not understand that the wickedness of the
pre-colonial era has not stopped.
Why would European
conquerors after killing Black ancestors still disrespect the dead by stealing their
bodies and transporting them back to Europe?
And to crown the murder
of our people with more insult, their bodies were kept and used for all sort of
experiments.
What is even more
revealing of European hatred and lack of remorse for slavery and atrocities of
colonization is that they still keep these bodies as properties of their states.
After the Berlin
conference of 1884- 1885, European nations decided to invade Africa and covert
our lands, resources and people. They laid siege to all African countries except
Ethiopia and Liberia. And while their missionaries preached of the peace and
love of Jesus and the Caucasian God, their governments and cooperation’s went
about killing Africans and stealing the bodies of our dead warriors. They
wanted to carry our studies and exhibitions in their numerous museums.
Germany murdered millions
of Southern and Eastern Africans, and relocated their bodies back to Berlin.
Two of Berlin’s most prominent scientific collectors, Rudolf Virchow and Felix
Von Luschan, had between 10,000 to 15,000 dead Africans in their anthropological
collection. There are also other several thousands more of Africans in various
locations in Germany.
When Luschan died, his
private collection of 'African dead' which comprised of skulls and skeletons was
sold to the American Natural History Museum (AMNH). Even America wanted in on
the research through theft of African dead people.
One of the major examples
of the use of Africans for inhumane experimentation and showcasing, is the case
of Saartjie Baartman from South Africa. She was a very beautiful and curvy
Black woman and was exhibited around Europe for five years, because of the
obsession for her very big buttocks. After her death in 1815, Cuvier
dismembered her body and placed her brains and genetilia in jars. He also put
up her skeleton for display at France's Museu L'homme (Museum of Man), and was
left there on display till 1976 - this is over 100 years.
By the actions of these colonialists,
it is clear that they are not remorseful about the atrocities of slavery. If
they were, they would not pride in holding numerous amounts dead Africans,
denying them the proper respects we accord our dead. The need to accord
Baartman her respect, Nelson Mandela, in 1994, requested that the France
returned the body of Saartjie Baartman. That request took the French till 2002
to respect.
Till date there are tens of thousands of body parts of Africans secretly stashed away in laboratories, museums and homes in Europe and America. It is important for African governments and corporations to dig more into our history, to be able to understand the amount of people stollen and find the best way to request for their return.