Can Mixi be far behind...???

;-)


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7955997.stm

"Dutch to return Ghana king's head

The head of a Ghanaian king executed by Dutch colonists in the 1830s is to
be returned to its homeland for burial, say authorities in the Netherlands.

Badu Bonsu II, leader of the Ashanti tribe, is believed to have been
decapitated in retaliation for the killing of two Dutch emissaries.

The Leiden museum, which has been storing the head, said it hoped it could
now have a dignified burial.

Ghana had said the king would not be at rest if the head remained where it
was.

King Bonsu is thought to have been executed after the two officials were
killed during a rebellion against European rule in the country, hanging
their heads on his throne as a trophy.

At some point, the king's head was taken from Ghana to the Netherlands, and
has been kept in a jar of formaldehyde at the Leiden University Medical
Centre ever since.

Author Arthur Japin told Dutch media last year that he once saw the head
while researching a historical novel.

"He's got a little ring beard, his eyes are closed as if he's sleeping,"
said Mr Japin.

"My first thought was, this is not fitting."

After hearing of the head's location in 2008, Ghana filed a request for its
return, saying if it remained unburied the king would be incomplete and
therefore "hunted in the afterlife".


'Good thing'

Now, a Dutch culture ministry spokesman has said the museum has decided to
"restore the head to Ghana" as a matter of dignity.

The museum said in a statement that officials had been in contact with
Ghana to arrange for the careful return of the preserved head.

They said they had not allowed any photographs to be taken out of respect
for the human remains.

The BBC's Will Ross in Accra says respect for the dead has huge cultural
significance in Ghana.

Ghanaian historian Prof Addo-Fening told the BBC that the museum's decision
was "very, very important".

When people die and their bodies are not found and buried, it leaves a
lingering fear that they will not find rest with their ancestors until this
is done," he said.


"As he was a king, putting his head on display would amount to some form of
humiliation for his people - but they now have an opportunity to show some
reverence to their late king before they bury him."

"I imagine that this will be a a good thing for the psyche of the
community," he said.

Museum spokesman Marleen van't Oever told AFP that no date had yet been
arranged for the return but it was "likely to be in the long term".

The museum's move follows decisions by other western museums to return items
taken during colonial times or explorations.

In 2006, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland returned to New Zealand the
preserved heads of nine tattooed Maori tribesman seized in the 19th Century.

The same year, Britain's Natural History Museum returned the remains of 18
indigenous people taken from Australia.

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