Ramaphosa: Reburial of Khoi and San ancestors marks painful return and call for redress

By Akani Nkuna

The ancestral remains of 63 Khoi and San peoples were finally reburied at the Kinderle Monument in Steinkopf, Northern Cape, during a sombre yet dignified ceremony attended by dozens of people from around the humid and arid Namaqualand region.

The remains of the Khoi and San people had been housed at the Hunterian Museum and were originally removed between 1868 and 1924 without the consent of the affected communities for race-based scientific research.

They were finally repatriated last year from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where they had been kept at the Hunterian Museum.

Delivering a keynote address at the solemn reburial ceremony held just outside Steinkopf in the Northern Cape, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Nama, Khoi, Korana, Griqua and San people bore the brunt of European conquest of southern Africa.

He said that they were dispossessed of their land, and unimaginable violence was unleashed