The remains of six Native Americans who died after being exhibited in a “human zoo” in Paris in 1892 have now been kept in the archives of a French museum for over a century. A delegation of indigenous Kali’na people from French Guiana and Suriname recently came to Paris to demand their return – but there are major legal obstacles to overcome before that can happen.
The remains of the six Kali’na have been stored in large, grey cardboard boxes at the Museum of Mankind for 132 years.
Each of them has a name card: Pékapé, Counai, Emo-Marita, Mibipi, Makéré and Miacopo. Some have photographs.
And soon, their descendants hope, they will have a dignified resting place back home.
But first they had to prepare their ancestors for the voyage through a shamanic ceremony, said Corinne Toka Devilliers, one of the 15-member delegation, whose great-grandmother Moliko was also exhibited in Paris but survived the experience.
“We couldn’t mourn without this crucial step with our shaman,” she told RFI’s Aram Mbengue.
“We had to soothe their souls, to be able to tell them: ‘We’ve come to find you, but first we wanted to talk to you, to comfort you so that you can return home calm and content’.”
Dancing with the spirits
The ceremony was held at the Museum of Mankind in the west of Paris, next to the Jardin d’Acclimatation park where Kali’na and Arawak people were exhibited in the late 19th century.
“We had to show [our ancestors] that we were happy,“ Toka Devilliers said. “We performed a baraka [blessing], danced with the spirits and offered them our traditional cachiri drink.”
The shaman blessed the ground, since the ancestors were exhibited just nearby, Toka Devilliers said, pointing to where the glass-roofed exhibition hall used to be.
He also blessed a photo featuring many of the group of 33 people who were shipped over to Paris from the port of Paramaribo – the capital of modern-day Suriname, then known as Dutch Guiana.
“Now everything is fine. We all feel calm,” Toka Devilliers said after the ceremony.
Listen to a report on the ceremony on the Spotlight on France podcast:
Exhibited like animals
In the 19th century, the Jardin d’Acclimatation made money exhibiting “exotic” peoples from far-off lands as part of what they called “ethnological shows” – now known more fittingly as human zoos.
Native Americans from French and Dutch Guiana were among those locked up and exhibited half-naked for months.
They suffered from ill health, and were mistreated.
While the majority of the group went back home after about five months, eight of them died in Paris.
One is believed to have been buried in a cemetery north of the capital, while another’s body was dissected in the name of scientific research.
The other six were buried in Paris and their remains – essentially bones – later joined the archives of the Museum of Mankind, where they’ve been kept ever since.
As the identities of those six Kali’na have been established, the museum says it’s not opposed to handing them over to their descendants.
But significant legal obstacles remain.
French paradox
In December last year, a framework law was passed allowing for the restitution of human remains from the colonial era kept in public French museums. But it provides only for transfers to museums abroad, not within France – including those in overseas territories like French Guiana.
In 2014, the skull of a Kanak chief who led a revolt in 1878 against French colonial forces was returned to New Caledonia – another part of overseas France – but it had been held in a private, not public collection.
Additional legislation is now needed to allow for the transfer of human remains within French territory.
Jean Victor Castor, an MP representing French Guiana, has long supported the work of the Moliko Alet+po association Toko Devilliers founded to campaign for the return of her people’s remains.
“On 26 December 2023, we took a step forward, with a framework law concerning country-to-country restitution. Now we’re talking about restitution within France,” he told RFI.
“If we can do it from country to country, there’s no reason why France can’t do it within its own borders. It’s a bit of a paradox. But I think it’s a battle we’re going to win.”
Race against time
The legislation gave the government a year to produce a report on how the process of restitution could be organised within French territories.
With the 26 December deadline fast approaching, Castor and other members of the delegation had been to the Ministry of Culture to put on the pressure.
“It acknowledged that the document had been written, but that it had not been signed at the time of [former prime minister] Gabriel Attal,” he told RFI’s sister station France 24. “It's up to the new prime minister to sign it, before the December deadline. We're still waiting.”
Given France’s turbulent political situation, with new Prime Minister Michel Barnier knee-deep in budgetary matters, the Kali’na file may not be top of the list of priorities.
Work of remembrance
Despite the frustration, Toka Devilliers is planning the return of the six Kali’na to their native lands.
The Moliko Alet+po association has inaugurated a memorial in western French Guiana in tribute to the 45 Kali’na and two Arawak people who were taken to Paris to be exhibited in two separate voyages in 1882 and 1892.
As well as two statues, the memorial also has a vault to welcome the remains of the six Kali’na when they are finally allowed home.
Beyond the issue of restitutions, historian Pascal Blanchard, maker of a documentary on human zoos, says France “needs to step up the work of remembrance”.
“It's fundamental, because this story doesn’t just concern the Kali’na and the Guianese,” he told RFI. “It concerns all French people, and beyond. There's a lot of work to be done in terms of memory and transmission.”
Toka Devilliers is calling for France to officially recognise that it harmed innocent people.
“We want the government one day to officially say: ‘Yes, we harmed the indigenous Kali’na and Arawak people of Guiana and Suriname. We treated them like savages.’
“We’re waiting for an apology, but we come in peace. We’re not here to fight anymore. What we really want is for the story of the exhibited Kalin’as and Arawaks to regain its rightful place in the history of France.”
