Instructor Bruno Veras' research group helps repatriate skull of African man who took part in Malê slave Uprising of 1835
The international working group Bruno Veras helped develop and coordinate was successful in its demand for the repatriation of a skull from the Peabody Museum Harvard, back to Brazil for a proper Muslim ceremony and burial in a monument.
The skull belonged to an African who took part of the Malê slave Uprising of 1835 (the second most important one in Atlantic History, after the Haitian revolution). Veras did extra research on provenance and discovered that the man who stole the skull from the fresh body of the rebel was an US-American diplomat. This opened an important stream of discussion between the Brazilian and US-American diplomacy about the case. A coordinated media initiative followed in the Brazilian press, and now in Europe and the USA.
Last year and in 2023 Veras organized two seminars as part of a course he usually teaches in the Master of Museum Studies Program (MSL2115). Veras' group invited Brazilian diplomats, the director of the Peabody Museum and others from Harvard, community leaders from Brazil (Black social movements and Islamic community) and professors from the Federal University of Bahia to dialogue and discuss restitutions and repatriations, with focus on Human remains and the particular case of the skull.
Their case was finally successful and after their second seminar, Harvard decided to have further dialogue with the working group and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. Now the working group are in dialogue with other six ministries from Brazil and the USA to discuss further research (including on DNA, image skull analysis and in archives), but also the dialogue with civil society organized groups for proper memorialization.
Dialogues about a second skull are to start. This skull belonged to another enslaved man from the 1870s. He died in Rio de Janeiro. Veras has already started some research on provenance with the colleagues in Harvard.
An article published at The Guardian was just released some days ago. The link is found below.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/05/brazil-harvard-african-rebels-skull-190-years
