Historic justice: Germany returns ancestral remains of the Maka’a people

A Cameroonian delegation, including representatives of the Maka’a community, academics, and several mayors, has been in Germany since July 13, 2026, to oversee the restitution of ancestral remains taken from the Haut-Nyong region (eastern Cameroon) during German colonial rule (1884–1916).

This restitution marks a significant milestone in the journey toward colonial memory justice and cultural reconciliation between Germany and Cameroon. The Maka’a community’s return of these remains—primarily skulls and bones of leaders and ancestors taken under colonial violence—ends decades of unresolved mourning.

According to the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, the remains were ceremonially released on July 16, 2026, in Freiburg, ahead of their repatriation to Cameroon. After the ceremony in Germany, the remains will be transported to their original villages in eastern Cameroon, where they will receive dignified burials in accordance with Maka’a traditions.

These remains, including those of dignitaries and ancestors killed or looted during colonization, were held at the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Freiburg and other museums under the pretext of colonial-era scientific experiments.

Decades of unresolved grief

For Maka’a traditional leaders like Chief Bertrand Effoudou, the absence of these remains has long been experienced as a “curse,” preventing the closure of ancestral mourning. The return of these remains is seen as a vital step toward spiritual justice and healing.

The Maka’a community, supported by Cameroonian ministries and the German Embassy in Yaoundé, has engaged in lengthy negotiations to finalize the logistics of the mission in Freiburg. Germany still holds at least 300 formally identified Cameroonian human remains, along with over 40,000 cultural artifacts looted during colonization, according to research by the University of Dschang and the Technical University of Berlin.