RIO DE JANEIRO — Two skulls believed to belong to enslaved Africans or Afro-Brazilians were repatriated to Brazil on Wednesday after being held at Harvard University for decades. The remains, held at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, had been used in racist eugenics studies since the 19th century.
One skull was taken approximately 190 years ago from Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, while the other was removed about 160 years ago from Rio de Janeiro. Both cities held ceremonies to welcome the remains back.
Brazilian diplomats transported the skulls in padded boxes secured inside reinforced suitcases. The repatriation followed a four-year campaign by Brazilian researchers and government officials that began in 2022 when the remains' existence became public.
Carolina Dias dos Reis, a Brazilian government official, traveled to Boston to sign the agreement with Harvard. "It's very important to restore the dignity of these people, which was taken from them in life and in death," Reis said. She added that recovery of the remains was essential to understanding present-day Brazil: "We need to recover our past as a country, however difficult and violent it was, so that we can understand what we are living through in the present: the consequences and scars of structural racism."
Brazilian researchers from local universities will now work to identify the individuals. The Brazilian government pledged that the skulls will not be displayed in museums, nor will their images be released. They will receive funeral rites and burial once identification is complete.
During the ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Ivanir dos Santos, a history professor and Candomblé cleric, performed a ritual by pouring water onto the ground as the suitcase containing the remains was received. "It was a ritual act because you cannot deal with the remains of our ancestors without paying reverence to them," dos Santos said. "This is not a research object — for us, that person is still alive in memory and as our ancestor."
Brazil received more enslaved Africans than any other nation during the transatlantic slave trade. Slavery was abolished in the country in 1888. Despite abolition nearly a century and a half ago, Afro-Brazilians, who constitute the majority of the population, continue to occupy the lowest positions across socioeconomic indicators, disproportionately facing hunger, poverty, gender-based violence and homicide.
