Kabwe Man

Case Study

Kabwe Man

At a Glance

Status

Contact

Origin

Kabwe, Zambia

Researcher

Mwape J. Mumbi

Belonging

Kabwe Man (also known as “Broken Hill Skull” or “Rhodesian Man”)  is said to be the first human fossil to be found in Africa. The cranium was initially estimated to be about 30 000 – 40 000 years old. More recent research around these skeletal remains suggest that his skull is  about 274 000 – 324 000 years  old.

Place of Origin

Kabwe, Central Province, Zambia (then North-West Rhodesia, which subsequently became Northern Rhodesia under British colonial rule).

Significance

Given the estimated age of Kabwe Man, he could not have belonged to any contemporary African or Zambian cultural grouping. However, in traditional Zambian folklore, Kabwe Man or “Kasanda Malombe” is considered to be a ‘spirit/god of wealth creation’; an ancient traditional miner, whose “sacred shrine” was desecrated by mining and blasting. As a communal ancestor, Kabwe Man would occupy the unseen realm of the living dead, where he would oversee the well-being of the Zambian community; particularly through the provision of good rainfall for fruitful harvest. 

In the field of human evolutionary science, Kabwe Man and the stone age belongings that accompanied him to Britain, have been central to Western biological, archaeological and anthropological research into the links between apes and humans, as well as stone age culture. He was initially categorised as homo rhodesiensis – the species whom early homo sapiens (modern day humans) would have walked alongside, in Africa. Emergent research has recategorised him as homo heidelbergensis – an even more archaic human species whose fossils have largely been found in Europe. Kabwe Man’s shifting position in this field has generated major debates in Western knowledge canons, as his categorisation has implications for the story that is told around the prehistoric origins of humans.

Current Location

Kabwe Man has been held at the Natural History Museum (previously The British Museum), in London, England since 1921.

Circumstances of Removal

Mining operations in Kabwe (then known as Broken Hill) unofficially began as early on as 1894, while Zambia (then North-Western and North Eastern Rhodesia) was being administered by the British South Africa Company. In 1904, Kabwe Mine (the Broken Hill Mine) was founded by the Rhodesia Broken Hill Development Company, and by 1906, lead and zinc mining had reached commercial production. The mining activities in the area catalysed the removal of Kabwe Man’s skull from Zambia.

On 17 June 1921, Tom Zwiglaar – a Swiss miner – and his team of unnamed African labourers were undertaking open-cast mining operations in an area of Kabwe where there were several small limestone hills (kopjes) and a hole. One account of the day states that Zwiglaar tossed an explosive into the shallow hole, and when the dust and the debris cleared a human skull was revealed; causing his labourers to immediately flee. The other states that one of the unnamed African labourers was manually digging the hole with a hand-pick when he struck what Zwiglaar believed to be a large gorilla’s skull. He then took over the digging on his own, and carefully removed the skull on his own. The participation of African labourers in this act is notably absent.

Zwiglaar took the skull to Ross Macartney, the Broken Hill Mine Manager, who photographed him with the skull and advised him to keep it with the mine’s physician, Dr. A. F. Wallace for safeguarding. Three weeks later, Macartney transported Kabwe Man’s skull to the British Museum. Upon arrival, the skull was examined by palaeontologist, Arthur Smith Woodward, who declared that the skeletal remains were about 30 000 – 40 000 years old, and belonged to a new species of human, which he dubbed homo rhodesiensis.

About two to three years later, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. commissioned Aleš Hrdlička, a Czech-American anthropologist, to write a formal report titled “The Rhodesian Man”. In this report Hrdlička confirms that the excavation site had remnants of pottery, metals and smelting tools, suggesting that Kabwe was once occupied by an ancient human community, and that the blast [or dig] seems to have disrupted some kind of burial site.

 

Impact of Loss

In 1921, the unnamed African labourers’ aversion to participating in the removal of Kabwe Man’s skull can be attributed to the belief that encounters with human body parts, particularly ones belongings to a deceased person who has not been properly buried, is taboo and a bad omen. This lingers in the back of one’s mind when we consider that Kabwe has been named the most toxic town in the world; a result of the unregulated and prolonged lead mining that continued well into the 1990s.

Since the 1920s, Kabwe Man’s skull has attracted both local and international attention as a display in the Human Evolution gallery in the Natural History Museum in London. Furthermore, his critical position in the theorisation of multiple evolutionary disciplines, including biology, archaeology and anthropology, has resulted in major investments, in research projects, skills development and capacity building, infrastructure and technologies – the benefits of which have been reaped by the British. Had Kabwe Man remained in Kabwe, it is believed that the economic returns from local and international tourism would have rightfully sat within Zambia, and that the research investments that have been poured into the British, as the holders of the skull, would have been turned to Zambia, and enabled local researchers and scientists in the aforementioned fields to flourish.

The entangled relationship between human evolutionary theories and racial “science” can also not be ignored. The discovery of Kabwe Man – a “sub-species” of modern day humans – in an African country, opened up a deeply problematic space to argue that Africans are the missing link between apes and humans.

Chronology of Restitution Efforts

The restitution of Kabwe Man was a topic of discussion in the broader colonial resistance movement in Zambia. However, when Zambia obtained independence from colonial rule in 1964, other matters were afforded precedence. As President Kenneth Kaunda’s nationalisation strategy took root in the 1970s, under the unifying call for “One Zambia, One Nation”, the history of mineral mining rights, and discussions around who should hold these in the newly independent Zambia, took centre stage, and the story of Kabwe Man returned to the spotlight. 

The restitution of Kabwe Man was a topic of discussion in the broader colonial resistance movement in Zambia. However, when Zambia obtained independence from colonial rule in 1964, other matters were afforded precedence. As President Kenneth Kaunda’s nationalisation strategy took root in the 1970s, under the unifying call for “One Zambia, One Nation”, the history of mineral mining rights, and discussions around who should hold these in the newly independent Zambia, took centre stage, and the story of Kabwe Man returned to the spotlight. 

The legal argument for retaining Kabwe Man completely ignored the fact that the removal of his skull in 1921 contravened ‘The Bushman Relics Proclamation’ (under the Northern Rhodesia Ordinance No. 15) of 1912 – a British order, which required people to obtain a removal permit from Britain before transferring materials out of the territory. This permit was not obtained by the Broken Hill Mine Manager, Mr Macartney, in effect making the acquisition and transfer to the British Museum illegal.

On 30 April 1974 the newly established National Monuments Commission wrote a letter to the British Museum (now Natural History Museum) formally requesting  information on the Broken Hill skull. The following details were sought:

  1. the circumstances under which the finds became the property of the Museum
  2. the conditions under which the skull was stored 
  3. any other point which might be relevant to a discussion of the return of the material

The British Museum responded on 6 June 1974, stating that the Broken Hill Development Company had  donated Kabwe Man to the museum, along with other paleontological specimens for a number of years. This suggested that the ‘The Bushman Relics Proclamation’ did not apply to belongings or human ancestors who had been removed from Zambia, and subsequently been transferred to the Mother Country. They reiterated that The British Museum Act 1963 forbade BMNH Trustees from disposing of any museum material.   There was no response pertaining to items “b” and “c” in the response. In 1978, the Zambian Ambassador to England took up the matter again, arguing that a resolution around the repatriation of Kabwe Man would need to be reached, to ensure the contention around this matter did not bleed into other areas of co-operation between Zambia and England.

In 1982, after a few years of unofficial side bars and rumblings, a memo was circulated by an official within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It stated that the return of Kabwe Man’s skull would “set an evil precedent, opening the floodgates for claims for vast quantities of cultural and scientific property held in British collections”.

From the 1970s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has intermittently been putting frameworks and bodies in place to regulate the trade and export of belongings, and to support communities of origin who have been wrongfully divested of their cultural property. This began with the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970, whose intentions were further supported by the establishment of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) in 1978. By 1993, seven cases had been brought before the committee, albeit from regions outside of Africa. 

On 24 June 1995, a draft of the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which spoke more pointedly to the colonial environment and circumstances under which African belongings and human ancestors had been removed from the continent, was adopted in Rome. Professor Francis B. Musonda, an academic and archaeologist based at the University of Zambia was in attendance. His participation in this event spurred him to advocate for the use of international platforms as the most feasible avenue through which to pursue the return of Kabwe Man’s skull. Although Zambia adopted both the UNESCO and UNIDROIT conventions, Britain consistently refused to be party to these agreements. The basis of their refusal shifted from a fear of their museums being emptied, to a patronising doubt that its former colonies would have the adequate professional skills and secure museological infrastructure to exhibit their own belongings and human ancestors to a global audience, and care for them as well as the British did.

In 2004, amidst the global shift in perceptions of ethnological museums, and particularly the retention of human ancestors in Western museums, Britain adopted the Human Tissue Act. Through this act, Britain communicated its intention to increase efforts to repatriate human ancestors to indigenous communities, and to limit the kinds of scientific inquiry that could be performed on human ancestors that were still in their possession. It also amended the British Museum Act 1963 by giving the trustees of the British Museum (now the National History Museum) authority to deaccession human ancestors from national collections. The caveat, however, was that the remains of ancestors being considered for repatriation needed to be human [homo sapiens], and less than 1000 years old. Kabwe Man fell outside of these requirements, and was thus not considered for repatriation.

In 2009, following nearly 40 years of non-responsiveness and lack of change in position from the British, the Zambian government established an Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee charged with addressing the restitution of all Zambian belongings and human ancestors. The committee struggled to build a case for the repatriation of Kabwe Man’s skull that proved the illegality of this removal, as per the requirements set out in the UNESCO and UNIDROIT conventions. There was lingering uncertainty as to whether Kabwe Man’s skull had been illegally removed from the region, in contravention of the ‘The Bushman Relics Proclamation’, or whether the skull had merely changed location within the same jurisdiction; that being the British colony, of which North-West Rhodesia was a part.

In 2013,  Prof. Musonda published a study titled “Decolonising the Broken Hill Skull: Cultural Loss and a Pathway to Zambian Archaeological Sovereignty”. In this study, he documented the frustration experienced by Zambians, he pinpointed the legal issue that had created a stalemate in the repatriation of Kabwe Man, and he highlighted the implications it had for the development of an independently conceived archaeological practice in the region. The arguments in his paper formed the basis for a presentation made before the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation five years later.

In June 2018, in the 21st session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee, the United Kingdom came forth to discuss the repatriation of Kabwe Man’s skull from Zambia and the Parthenon sculptures from Greece. Mr. Collins Chipote (Executive Director of National Heritage and Conservation in Zambia) presented the case on behalf of the Zambian delegation. He implored the United Kingdom to return Kabwe Man’s skull, stating that the relic was Zambia’s indigenous and earliest hominine find. 15 out of the 22 member states that were present supported Zambia’s bid for the repatriation of Kabwe Man’s skull. The recommendation from the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee was for the two countries represented to report to the 24th session of the ICPRCP (to be held in 2024) with progress made or a resolution.

In 2019, off the back of what was considered a successful engagement with the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Tourism in Zambia moved forward with memorialisation plans in Kabwe that had been in the pipeline since 2014. On 6 September 2019, Minister of Tourism Hon Chitotela declared the excavation site of Kabwe Man as a national heritage site through Statutory Instruments nos 56 & 57 of 2019. In 2022, at a community level,  the Cultural Heritage Organising Committee (CHOC) Kabwe, which is composed of town-based artists, and the Kabwe Municipal Council who had initially advocated for the repatriation of Kabwe Man as far back as the 1970s, installed a sculptural bust on a pedestal at Kabwe Civic Centre. A miniature case of Kabwe Man’s skull was placed inside the bust for public view. 

Current Status

Contact

The 24th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) was held from the 29th – 31st of May 2024. Zambia and The United Kingdom presented their respective proposals for the way forward; the former proposing the repatriation of Kabwe Man’s skull to Zambia, the latter considering an alternative that did not include repatriation. UNESCO ruled in favour of Zambia’s proposal. The  Intergovernmental Committee recommended that the representatives of the two countries return to the 25th session (to be held in 2026) with a roadmap for the skull’s repatriation.

Kabwe Man’s skull remains in the custody of the Natural History Museum, in London. 

Contents

Mwape J. Mumbi

Case Study Researcher

Mwape J. Mumbi

Mwape J. Mumbi, is a curator, writer, filmmaker, arts critic and independent researcher, originally from Kabwe and resident in Lusaka, Zambia. As an active member of the artistic, cultural and heritage community in Zambia, Mumbi is tapped into the network of people in these fields, who are critically engaging with the matter of restitution.His vast knowledge of African, Zambian and Kabwe’s political, social and economic history, coupled with his nuanced knowledge of the frameworks, decisions and people that have shaped the arts, culture and heritage sector in Zambia over the last few decades allowed him to explore the efforts to restitute Kabwe Man’s skull from multiple vantage points.

His personal investment in realising the holistic restitution of Kabwe Man’s skull is intertwined with his long standing commitment to contribute to the self-affirming cultural reconstruction and strategic self-sustaining economic resuscitation of Kabwe, and Zambia as a whole. His own steps towards this ambition have taken shape through his establishment of a not-for-profit Heritage Interpretation Centre, which doubles as Community Museum and Design & Art Gallery in Kabwe.

Methodology and Field Experience

Mumbi worked with a mix of desktop research – including newspaper reports and publicly available research papers, oral interviews and reflections on his ongoing participation in arts, culture, heritage and restitution discussion and events to develop the data for this case study. During his fieldwork research, Mumbi spent a considerable amount of time walking through and photographing the sites and landscape of Kabwe. His embodied and visual research approach, and his accompanying narratives that were interwoven with history, anecdotes and indigenous knowledge and beliefs offered us a robust look into the experiences of people in Kabwe; from the miners who may have been present in the 1920s, to the community that sits with the legacy of Kabwe Man today.

In conducting his desktop research, Mumbi found that there were very few accessible accounts of the progression of restitution efforts. This is because most attempts to return Kabwe Man have been led by the State,  and these documents sit with government officials who were either unresponsive or tight-lipped regarding the steps and decisions that had been taken. He relied heavily on Professor Francis B. Musonda, one of the leading voices in Zambian restitution, and fellow artists who had engaged with the Kabwe man and his significance to Zambians in their productions and exhibitions, to piece together the nearly five decade long journey.

Duration of research:

This research data was gathered as part of the first case study research cohort, from August – November 2023. The information in this case study profile reflects the status of this restitution case as at November 2023.

Kabwe Man

Kabwe Man

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