DEPUTY Minister of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Susan Kawandami has told Parliament that Government has made several attempts to retrieve the skull of Broken Hill Man from the British government and bring it back home.
Ms Kawandami told the House on Wednesday that Government has for many years engaged the British government to influence the return of the skull of Broken Hill Man to Zambia.
Ms Kawandami, however, said the British museum, which is governed by a board of trustees, is reluctant to release the skull to Zambia.
She said the British government has failed to intervene but has only offered to make a replica of the skull, which she said they intend to send to Zambia.
But Katuba member of Parliament Jonas Shakafuswa (UPND) asked the minister to tell the “colonialists” to return the skull to Zambia and Ms Kawandami responded that Government will engage the British government through UNESCO to return it.
He said that once returned to Zambia, the skull of Broken Hill Man will have a lot of economic benefits to the nation through tourism and job creation.
Meanwhile, Ms Kawandami said the eight museums in the country are greatly contributing to the growth of the tourism industry.
Ms Kawandami also said there are three community museums and one site museum in Livingstone.
Oh my! The cheek! The daring! The insolence!
Maybe they should make a replica of Nkandu Luo’s skull first if she has agreed to this misnomer. Cheeky.
These people have not only managed to steal our minerals but a fossil that clearly belongs to us.. The nerve!!!
why cant they make a replica for themselves and give us what is due to us? … talk of double standards!
Nonsense. Let them make and keep the replica. We want our skull. These colonialists can be so cheeky, eh? WE WANT OUR SKULL!!!
The skull was taken from Zambia in 1974. It was not taken but rather the Zambian government offered it to the UK because of then an explanation of it being destroyed and smor not conducive to be kept in Africa.
After 40 years as I have read this by one of the reporters here, they are bemused and laughed that some MP thinks it will be returned to Zambia
In summary it will never come back people
Sorry
Thanks
BB2014
Who needs an old, creaky skull when we have no brains in our moving ones. Keep it there until we have had a change of government and usher in people with real grey matter in the moving skulls.
Ndi nobulanda mwebantu SAULOSI nafwa.
Afwile nechikonko icha PF
chorus
x2 SAULOSI kankulile
iiiiiiiiiiiiyyeeeeeeeeee
@ kopala girl
LOL-‘they stole a fossil’. Nice one.
The white supremacists will never return anything they got from our continent neither will they ever say ‘thank you’ for all that Africa has given them. Lets lick our wounds, forgive and forget, and move on, only God loves us.
Jus keep it there if u want,we hav mor serious issues to deal wit,tha kwacha is free fallin,oil is the most expensive in southern africa.we rather concentrate on such issues and not bones plz
This is a very unfortunate statement coming from a Zambian. The Broken Hill Man skull is Zambia’s heritage just like the remains of Sara Bartman that South Africa claimed back from France. It is “not bones”, rather it is our history, it is our heritage. If it is just bones as you put it why are the British not willing to part with the “bones”?
The GRZ must fight for the return of that skull.
@kashiji
The whites think you are so stupid that you will not know the difference between the actual skull and a fake one. Africans can’t even read after all right?
The taking away of the fossil was pure thieving, let them immediately bring back Mweni Kabwe back.
@Chile agreed, back to the by-election Road.
They should send back the skull……it’s them who are supposed to keep the replica and not us……I thought Guy Scott was the only dull white man.
haha this is kind of ironic, but is it April fools day?
You *****s you are felling to reduce the price of unga but you are more than wiling to bring bones from abroad what a shame.
Neo-colonialism, good at selling us copies of the real thing. NO. WE NEED THE REAL THING, not a COPY
There’s much more than the skull that europeans stole from us…
Zinjathropus, homohabilis and pronconsol…! Get one monkey skull give it to the Britons. Weo ni skull ya anyoko…nati wezya
Let them have a replica and us we get our original. Tell them that they are so silly as to think Zambians can accept that useless suggestion. Shame on them indeed. Tell them to bring back what they stale. Useless colonialists.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
The British Museum has nothing to exhibit except items ‘acquired’ from other countries.
They need it because of Darwin. Prior to that they had no ‘evidence’…
Trading in stolen African artifaftd is one of the multi million dollar dark trades. Plenty has walked from Zed. Ask the curators. We need to start taking our own history seriously.
Enlighten me, how did it leave our land in the first place?
The same way most of things leave the country either while we volunteer them because we don’t appreciate the value or some corrupt individuals think they can make a quick buck out of mortgaging anything in their path. We have heard even in recent times how some Asian businessman bragged about making millions of dollars in the mining industry in Zambia for a song.
The skull belongs to Zambia, full-stop! Tell them, the former colonialists to return it to us in one piece. We are not interested in your replica. Zambia has never gotten any benefits from visits by tourists to the skull at your museum.
Ask them if they can ever accept a paper replica of monies that we owe their oppressive banks (WB, IMF). These people amaze me, they confuse me. How many Egyptian tombs have they raided, robbed and shipped to European museums?
Can they give us an original rock from the Stone Henge and remain with a replica? Africans, stand up for what’s yours. If you had their skull and refused to give it back, they would come in with Air strikes to take down your museum! Come on Brits, we get along on so many issues. Cooperate with us again on this pride of our…
Reading this article, I do not know whether I should laugh or cry.
The incoming government will have it brought back. Don’t expect these who have failed in everything to bring back the skull. The skull is not our priority for now as we want to put food on your table first, however we will still bring it back. You have suffered enough , mealie meal 100 percent increase in price in only 3 years. Unbelievable
…ba Kawandami please let us be serious with serious issues….. what replica nonsense am I hearing…??..and the minister sounds like she concerted to the idea…please take that trustee board to the international criminal court or court of arbitration….meanwhile send them a bill/quotation/charge say £1750 per day until the day the shall return it to Zed. The same guys pay China big money for the Pandas they got from there….
…by the way, what technology have we got to ascertain that what they will send wont be a replica..??
First off those of you asserting that it was given away are missing the point. There was next to no free consent. Why is it easy for ‘consented’ artifacts to be returned to some and not other? If we show impotence and mediocrity like this we will end up with the replica.
#bringbackourskull
A lot of exhibits are replicas as it is. One can only wonder where the originals are and what middle ages rituals are probably historically part of their mythical power boost and desire to retain objects.
If you can carry an entire building from Greece and reconstruct it in the British Museum then a little skull (which I think is actually at the Natural History Museum) is one of the smallest objects there. Their entered basement is full of boxes with African objects by the way. Some they were not sure they can exhibit without back lash. They quietly gave back the stolen Book of Solomon to Ethiopia though…
Given a chance they would have transported the Victoria Falls over there too. Chuckle.
their ‘entire’ basement… darn spell check
Atase!
Absolute rubbish!
And they will keep the original?
Don’t worry folks. I am on my way to go and collect Stone Henge. We will rebuild it as our own Arc de Triomphe over Cairo Road or maybe stick it by the Victoria Falls and build a little toilet on the side so it has a use after all.
Old man Sata’s skull would be an ideal replacement whilst we are negotiating for the skull…its important that its returned to Zambia so our great know our journey and not the lies in the white man’s bible.
The minister needs to get in touch with the Eygptians they know how to deal with those pompous suits at the British museum….we need quasi government institutions to be handling such matters headed by professionals not some empty tins from the ministry of chiefs.
I still don’t get it, you want the skull of the ‘Broken Hill’ and yet you did away with the name Broken Hill Town?
British thieving legacy again – they are still as presumptious, conniving and despicable as they were when they first entered our land without Visa or invitation. Who dares them to even make a replica of something that does not belong to them? Will they give us the original sceptre of the Queen and get a replica from us in exchange?
They stab you in the back and claim you did it to yourself. And as if that was not painful enough, our own people are here rejoicing and supporting it. If you don’t care about what is yours, then you do not desrve it. If you do not guard your ancestral relics, you are not worthy to rule your national destiny.
I like this one. They should keep the skull and all the minerals they have taken from Zambia. They should not stop the Zambia economic refugees either who are going to UK to look for their inheritance taken from Zambia. Lol!!!!!
You are crying for a skull yet you don’t even have a museum with proper storage facilities, typical Africans.
Even if they see a white man on a farm with thousands of acres of inhabited free land around, they will want that particular farm from the white man.
Please refer to yesterday’s article regarding the same issue where it is raised alongside the building of a modern facility. In the meantime consider how many thousand of years it survived in the mine without the need for ‘proper storage’… If it doesn’t bother you seeing dead Africans ‘treated’ with such zoo like display then a visit to the British museum will be a real treat for you. It’s not too long ago when human zoos existed in London so the attitude is no surprise… I think it would be great for kids in Zambia to be able to see the skull and we should cultivate their education too – without the racism associated to it.
Typical mentality of the colonialist; wanting to hang on even to what is known not to be His without any shame! Just give back the original you thieving British.
As if we do not have enough on our plate.
If they wait long enough, they can have Edgar Lungu’s skull…almost identical to Broken Hill man…