Two skulls belonging to individuals likely enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade were repatriated to Brazil on Wednesday after spending more than a century in the United States. The remains had been used in racist eugenics studies at Harvard University following their removal from the country during the 19th century.
One skull was taken approximately 190 years ago from Salvador in the state of Bahia, while the other was removed about 160 years ago from Rio de Janeiro. Both cities hosted moving, subdued ceremonies to welcome the remains back home. Brazil received more enslaved Africans than any other nation during the transatlantic trade.
Each skull travelled in a padded box inside a reinforced suitcase, carried on flights by Brazilian diplomats. The transfer followed a four-year diplomatic campaign to recover the remains from Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Concerns had grown recently that hostile political behavior from Donald Trump toward Brazilian President Luiz Inacia Lula da Silva might derail the repatriation process.
Local university researchers will now attempt to learn more about the two individuals. The government has pledged that the remains will not be displayed in museums or have their images released. Instead, they will receive proper burial rites once identification work concludes.
“It’s very important to restore the dignity of these people, which was taken from them in life and in death,” said Carolina Dias dos Reis, a government official who travelled to Boston to sign the agreement with Harvard. She added that the country must recover its violent past to understand the contemporary consequences of structural racism.
Slavery was officially abolished in Brazil in 1888. Nearly a century and a half later, Afro-Brazilians still make up the majority of the population while occupying the bottom of every socioeconomic indicator, dominating statistics on hunger, poverty, gender-based violence, and homicides.
During the handover ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, history professor and Candomblé cleric Ivanir dos Santos poured a glass of water onto the ground as researchers received the suitcase. “It was a ritual act because you cannot deal with the remains of our ancestors without paying reverence to them. This is not a research object... For us, that person is still alive in memory and as our ancestor,” he stated.
Historians hold different theories about the identities of the two individuals. The skull from Salvador is believed to belong to a man who participated in the 1835 slave revolt, the most significant urban uprising in Brazilian history, where roughly 600 African Muslims attempted to seize control of the city. Following their defeat by police who killed 70 rebels, the man died in a hospital, and a US diplomat named Gideon T Snow allegedly sent his skull to Boston. The Bahia Islamic Cultural Centre has named the man Arakunrin, a Yoruba word meaning brother.
Even less is known about the second person, whose skull was exhumed from the streets of Rio de Janeiro in the 1860s. Harvard researchers informed Brazilian officials that features of the skull, which was smaller than an adult male’s but larger than a child’s, suggest it may have belonged to a woman. Historian Bruno Veras believes the skull may have been taken from a cemetery for newly arrived Africans who died after the Atlantic crossing. Walter Hunnewell, a student from Boston participating in an expedition led by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz, reportedly took the skull to the United States.
“To steal a skull and take it to another country was violent even in the context of racist research,” Veras said. Forensic anthropology researchers will now use measurements and microscopic analyses to confirm the sex and other details of the individuals, seeking genetic or dating tests if necessary.
“This history of slavery cannot be undone,” said Irina Feisthauer Silveira, a diplomat who carried one of the skulls. “But acknowledging the mistakes of the past with transparency is a first step towards building a more equal, just and less violent future.”
