Zambia, UK to resume talks on Broken Hill Man’s return
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
PROGRESS over the return of Zambia’s Broken Hill Man from the Natural History Museum in London has intensified.
The Broken Hill Man was unearthed in 1921 by an unnamed African and a Swiss miner called Tom Zwigelaar and was later donated to the then British Museum now Natural History Museum which houses 25,000 human remains.
Broken Hill Man was initially named as Homo Rhodesiensis by a palaeontologist Arthur Smith but was later classified as Homo Heidelbergensis and is said to have first appeared 600,000 years ago.
The BBC recently revealed that the UK was willing to return human remains to Zimbabwe that were taken in the 1890s, among them Charwe Nyakasikana who famously became known as Mbuya Nehanda.
National Museums Board (NMB) acting director general George Mudenda told The Mast in an interview that Zambia has been invited for a Broken Hill Man return negotiations to be monitored by UNESCO early next year.
Mudenda said the inter-ministerial committee on the return of cultural property held a meeting May and recommended that diplomatic negotiations be taken for the return of the Broken Hill Man.
“Right now there is an invitation from the Ambassador who is the Permanent Representative to UNESCO Dr Christine Kaseba and also the UK’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative for the Zambian government to go to the negotiating table because the matter is before UNESCO. UNESCO is encouraging us to negotiate,” Mudenda said.
He however noted that the UK says the museum (Natural History Museum) is a trust and under the trust laws it does not allow for the return of cultural property especially human remains which were gotten during colonialism.
Mudenda added that under the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention it allows for the return of human remains that were collected during colonialism.
“We want to see if early coming this year we can go for negotiations which will be monitored by UNESCO,” said Mudenda.
The Natural History Museum website indicates that the Broken Hill Man is displayed in its Human Evolution Gallery.
The Museum adds that negotiations over the return of the skull have been ongoing since the 1970s, adding that the issue was discussed at the 2018 UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its countries or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation.
“The outcome of the UNESCO discussion was agreement that Zambia and the UK would pursue bilateral discussion,” revealed the UK museum.