Zimbabwe’s iconic stone birds were taken by colonialists. Finally, they’re all back home

BBC:

Zimbabwe’s flag, banknotes and coat of arms all feature a stately looking eagle, sitting majestically on a plinth.

Known as the Zimbabwe Bird, it has long been a symbol of national identity, but behind it lies a complex tale of displacement, colonial plunder and restitution.

The bird is one of several ancient, treasured sculptures that were taken from Zimbabwe by colonialists and spent decades outside the country’s borders.

It was only this week that – after 137 years away – the final displaced bird arrived home, a moment Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa described as “the return of a national icon”.

The grey, soapstone carving was repatriated from neighbouring South Africa – it wound up there having been ripped from its column, then sold to British imperialist Cecil Rhodes.

On Tuesday, South Africa repatriated the bird, along with eight sets of human remains, previously exhumed in Zimbabwe by colonial researchers and donated to a South African museum.

The body parts were taken during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries for “a misguided colonial pseudoscience” South African Minister of Culture Gayton McKenzie said at a ceremony held to hand over the remains and the bird.

“These are not abstractions, but people… removed from their graves, their communities, and their homeland under the logic that their bodies were data,” he said.