Historic grievances, new friends
France and Madagascar collaborate to heal colonial-era wounds through contrition and forgiveness.
A motorcycle drives between baobab trees near Morondava, Madagascar.
Reuters
A year of war has left many Israelis and Palestinians doubting that they will ever find a way to trust each other. France and Madagascar may offer a blueprint.
Last week, the two countries formed a joint scientific committee to facilitate the repatriation of human remains that had been taken from the African island nation and placed in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The panel marks the first step in implementing a law passed by the French Parliament a year ago to address grievances from France’s colonial past.
The French author of that legislation called it “an act of reconciliation.” The granddaughter of a Malagasy king beheaded during a rebellion against French rule in 1897 agreed. The king’s skull was carted across continents to be set on display. Its return, she told Radio France Internationale, “would be a sign of forgiveness between the Malagasy and the French.”
The collaboration between France and Madagascar is the latest in a widening global trend of reconciliation between peoples bound together by painful shared histories. Many of those efforts start with apologies. Yet for many societies, salving a divided past requires a practical gesture of remorse that opens the way toward a united future.
“‘The moral core of apology,’” wrote Alexander Karn, a history professor at Colgate University, quoting Zohar Kampf and Nava Löwenheim, “is precisely its capacity to help us envision a world where a higher, more altruistic standard of conduct might gain influence. ... Atonement, for those seeking it, is always elaborated through the next steps taken toward it.”
One step, however genuine, often leads to others. Germany, for example, signed a declaration with Namibia in 2021 to pay reparations to Namibia for colonial-era massacres. The two countries are now discussing possible ways to restore equality through land reforms. Both Canada and Australia have followed apologies with reparations to Indigenous communities for forced-education policies.
Such measures are about more than material compensation. Museums in Europe and the United States have begun in recent years to negotiate the return of artifacts to their lands of origin. Those exchanges acknowledge the dignity of individuals and societies through the recovery of their own narratives. They are also fostering deeper respect and empathy through collaborations among curators from different backgrounds.
Items in French museums include tens of thousands of human bones collected across the lands the country once subjugated. That includes Madagascar, where France ruled during more than 60 years punctuated by violent repression and forced resettlements. The two countries have declared a historic moment of reconciliation. Laying aside old wounds, they are restoring a future of dignity and redemption.