'More than just an object'. A material analysis of the return and retention of Namibian skulls from Germany

Abstract

In 2011, twenty Namibian skulls were repatriated from the Charité university hospital in Berlin, Germany. The skulls had been collected in German South-West Africa, present-day Namibia, in the early twentieth century for pseudo-scientific research. They belonged to Herero and Nama victims of the German-Herero war, a genocide which took place between 1904-1908. This thesis analyzes the layers of meaning that the twenty skulls acquired in the practices of collecting (1904-1910), studying (1910-1924), and repatriating (2011) by examining why, by whom, in what context and importantly, how the skulls were handled and discussed in each of the practices.