The Tangué – Belonging of the Bele-Bele Family of Douala Kingdom
The Tangué is intertwined with the political, spiritual and cultural lives of the water tribes of the Douala…
Monna wa Mosarwa [known in Western knowledge canons as El Negre de Banyoles] is an unidentified human ancestor, believed to be of the Batlhaping or San people.
The origins of Monna wa Mosarwa are contested. He was initially believed to be a Batswana warrior. He was later classified as of San descent, which means his origins could be traced to Namibia, South Africa and/or Botswana. After his return to Botswana, it was put forth that he may be of Batlhapingdescent, meaning he could have originated from Northern Cape, South Africa.
The rites and rituals performed during the burial of a Motlhaping, are enacted to ensure a peaceful transition from the land of the living to the land of the living dead. Here, the deceased become badimo; ancestors charged with the care of the communities’ fortunes, and conduits to the highest spiritual power of all, Modimo. Monna wa Mosarwa would have, after his burial, taken up this role in the Batlhaping community.
Monna wa Mosarwa [El Negre de Bayones] was also the first human ancestor repatriation to Botswana, one of the first on the continent as a whole, and one of a handful from Spain. His return to Botswana and reburial were critical to affirming his dignity and the dignity of the African people. He was also a key figure in advocating for human ancestors who had been violently removed from their resting places to be returned for reburial in their home countries and to be united with other ancestral beings. His return also served as an opportunity to educate young people in Botswana about the deeply unethical colonial practice of emptying graves for scientific research.
Monna wa Mosarwa’s taxidermied skin, skull and bones were displayed at the Darder Museum of Natural History in Banyoles, Spain from 1916. His skull and bones were buried in Gaborone, Botswana, in 2000, but his personal belongings that were displayed/exhibited with him were left in Madrid, Spain.
In 1818, Jules and Édouard Verreaux – French nationals with a background in botany, ornithology and taxidermy – began acquiring, stealing and trading natural history specimens from South Africa. In 1830, they made a similar expedition to a region across modern-day Botswana and South Africa, where Verreaux claimed to have witnessed the burial of a Tswana warrior. He further claimed that he secretly returned to the same burial site, in the dead of night, where he stole Monna wa Mosarwa’s dead body from his grave. His dismembered body parts were prepared for taxidermy, using makeshift materials, then placed in a box and shipped to France, where the process of reconstructing a human-size Tswana warrior out of literal skin, skull and bones was completed.
By 1916, Monna wa Mosarwa had changed hands multiple times in Europe, and had, through European research, been recast as a San community member. That year his taxidermied skin, skull and bones were purchased by the founder of the Darder Museum of Natural History in Banyoles – a city in Catalonia, Spain. It is here that he became known as El Negre de Banyoles.
The impact of Monna wa Mosarwa’s removal from his grave is not known, as his community of origin has not been definitively identified. The journey of his taxidermied skin, skull and bones through Europe is, however, symbolic of the violent, dehumanising and indignifying nature of colonialism in Africa, and the racial science research project that was attached to it.
In 1991, Dr. Alphonse Arcelin, a doctor and counsellor for the Socialist Party of Catalonia, who was of Haitian (African) descent, wrote a letter to the mayor of Banyoles. In this letter, he confronted his fellow party member, Joan Solana, about the indignity of the display, and demanded that Monna wa Mosarwa be returned to Southern Africa. His demand was met with resistance from his party and the Catalan people, who perceived the shared experience of visiting the El Negre de Banyoles display as a powerful unifying one, in their nascent attempts to emerge a Catalonian national identity.
In 1992, the Olympic games were set to be held in Barcelona. Following Catalan resistance to Monna wa Mosarwa being repatriated to Southern Africa, Dr Alphonso Arcelin and other residents of African descent embarked on a campaign that coincided with this global event, to publicise the indignity of the display. With support from Black athletes – like Magic Johnson – and sports officials who were attending the Olympics, and prominent global actors like Kofi Annan (then a senior leader in the United Nations), the campaign received widespread media coverage during the Olympics. However, Monna wa Mosarwa remained on display.
In 1997, Kofi Annan was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), and the repatriation of African human ancestors became a key agenda point for the global community. His engagements with the mayor of Banyoles, as well as mounting international pressure, resulted in the display being removed. The Spanish government agreed to the repatriation, as this was in line with international human rights and conventions, and the rights of indigenous peoples. However, the lack of an existing policy for the repatriation of human ancestors in Spain, the lack of reliable provenance research around his origins, and the continued protests by the Catalan community stalled Monna wa Mosarwa’s return to Africa. He was kept in museum storage for three years, while these barriers were resolved.
From 1997 until 2000, the Spanish government was engaged in intensive negotiations with the UN, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). This process was prolonged by the uncertainty surrounding Monna wa Mosarwa’s origins. After consulting with UNESCO, the OAU requested the government of Botswana to accept legal ownership of the human ancestor, which it did. Discussions between Spain and Botswana then began with regard to the logistics of the repatriation.
In Botswana, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Gaborone City Council were tasked with facilitating and coordinating the restitution of Monna wa Mosarwa. They established a reference committee composed of representatives from the University of Botswana, the National Archives, the National Museum, Gaborone City Council, legal advisors and others. The reference committee was responsible for ensuring that members of the public, particularly members of the San community, were aware of and supported the restitution of Monna wa Mosarwa, and his reburial. It was decided that he would be received and reburied in a state funeral in Gaborone, Botswana in October 2000 and that both local and international stakeholders, as well as the Botswana public, would be invited to attend.
On 4 October 2000, Monna wa Mosarwa’s skull and bones were returned to Botswana in a coffin, via air travel. A large crowd met him at the airport, and many visited his open coffin at the City Council Hall throughout the day and night, to pay their respects. On the 5th of October, he was buried according to Christian and communal burial rituals at Tsholofelo (Hall) park.
During the funeral, Monna wa Mosarwa’s burial site was declared a national monument under the Gaborone City Council; a curious decision as all other national monuments are curated by the Botswana National Museum. This decision resulted in negligence to his burial site, as a custodian and museum guide were not assigned to the site.
In 2001, Southern Africa experienced extreme hot winds associated with the El Niño occurrence, with Botswana being especially deprived of rains that year. Many Batswana believed that Monna wa Mosarwa was responsible for the harsh weather conditions; either by other ancestors rejecting him, or him being angry at the lack of care for his grave. There were also persistent rumblings around the origins of Monna wa Mosarwa. The rush to assign a rightful owner country had left little or no room to explore (and dispel) the possibility that he may have belonged to the Batlhaping community in South Africa’s Northern Cape or the San community in South Africa’s Western Cape.
In 2006, following growing public rage over the state of Monna wa Mosarwa’s grave, the burial site was re-declared a national monument, under the Monument and Relics Act 12 of 2001. This officially made the Botswana National Museum the custodian of the site, and protocols for proper signage, educational information and care were implemented. The eventual development of a restaurant complex nearby has also increased foot traffic, and by extension, the number of visitors to Monna wa Mosarwa’s resting place.
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Although Monna wa Mosarwa is now buried on African soil, there are still outstanding issues surrounding his restitution. His skin, which crumbled while his body parts were being retrieved from the taxidermied model, and his personal belongings [loin cloth, headgear and spear] are still in Spain. The DNA tests conducted between 1997 – 2000, in Spain, to determine his community of origin, are not public. There are also no clear ongoing plans for educational and tourist activities related to his burial site.
Dr. Winani Thebele is a seasoned museum professional, curator and scholar. She offered her skills and knowledge to the Botswana National Museum for 34 years and retired from her role as Chief Curator and the Head of the Ethnology Division in June 2023. Throughout her tenure at the museum, Winani participated in global, regional and local debates and training around colonial collections – with an emphasis on African diasporic collections, in developing decolonised and inclusive museums, and in collaborative approaches to restitution. Her PhD thesis, which was completed through the University of the Witwatersrand, was titled The Migrated Museum: Restitution or a Shared Heritage? grappled with these aforementioned issues as opportunities for transforming the African museum. She has, through her work, also built an expansive network in the local and international cultural and heritage sectors.
Her deep experiential and academic knowledge of restitution debates, legislation and policy, as well as her presence at the Botswana National Museum when Monna wa Mosarwa was repatriated, and her involvement in the debates around post-restitution protocol thereafter, were invaluable in framing and unpacking the processes involved in this case, in a robust manner; from multiple vantage points.
The data for this case study was developed primarily through oral interviews with one of the academics/historians who participated in the reference committee, and the municipal officials who were put in charge of the restitution, and post-return activities. Winani also relied on desktop research, in the form of blogs, journal articles and academic theses, and reflections on her personal experience of being a staff member at the Botswana National Museum, and the exposure she had to the intricacies of this and other restitution cases.
During her research, she found that the Spanish dialogue and experience in restitution is still quite limited, beyond the case of Monna wa Mosarwa. She also found that her interviewee who participated in the reference committee was quite tight-lipped about the processes that preceded his return. In Botswana, there is also a willingness to speak about restitution in general, however, she found that the views and understandings held vary from person to person.
This research data was gathered as part of the second case study research cohort, from November 2023 – February 2024. The information in this case study profile reflects the status of this restitution case as at February 2024.
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*Mosarwa is the vernacular name given to members of the San community in Botswana. When directly translated, it means one without cattle, to speak to the historically nomadic nature of the cultural group.