South Africa Reburies 63 Khoi and San Ancestral Remains in Emotional Ceremony
On March 23, 2026, the ancestral remains of 63 Khoi and San people found their way back to the earth in a moving reburial ceremony outside Steinkopf in South Africa’s Northern Cape. President Cyril Ramaphosa joined Khoi and San descendants, government officials, and community leaders at the Kinderlê-monument in the Namaqua region for the event. The remains had been taken without consent between 1868 and 1924 by colonial Europeans for race-based scientific research and kept at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum until repatriation last year. This reburial of Khoi San ancestral remains marks a step toward healing old wounds by restoring dignity to those long denied it. The ceremony brought together the past, present, and future of these indigenous peoples. This article covers the event’s details, the painful history behind it, key quotes from leaders and descendants, and what it means going forward.
Those bones had rested in foreign soil for over a century. Colonial researchers dug them up from graves in the Northern Cape and shipped them to Scotland, treating the dead as objects for study. No one asked the families or communities for permission. Last year, the remains came home to South Africa. Officials received them in Cape Town at the Iziko Museums. From there, they traveled north along the winding N7 road in a handover from the Western Cape to the Northern Cape government.
The reburial started with deep traditional rites to honor the ancestors. A night vigil lit up the Kinderlê-monument the evening before. The next day, hundreds gathered under the sun for the formal ceremony. This spot holds special meaning. It sits on hallowed ground, already a burial site for children lost in clan wars and soldiers from old battles nearby. Everyone from elders to youth came to witness the moment.
President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke words that captured the day’s weight. He called out the unacknowledged erasure of southern Africa’s indigenous peoples. He pointed to how some European nations offered partial apologies for past wrongs but stopped short of owning all of colonialism. South Africa, he said, would restore dignity its own way.
The return of our ancestors to their descendant communities is a vital act of restoration and restitution that goes beyond acknowledging the colonial legacy; it is also a manifestation of ubuntu – a recognition of our common humanity.
His speech tied the event to ubuntu, the idea of our shared humanity.
Barend van Wyk, chairman of the National Griqua Council, shared the raw pain of it all. He called the old removals exploitative and humiliating. “Emotionally, it’s hard,” he told SAnews. “The fact that they dug up our ancestors’ remains…why did they do that to human beings?” Dionne Barley, a direct descendant of some whose bones returned, felt joy mixed with reflection. She said she was happy they now rest with dignity, not on museum shelves, thanks to the President’s efforts. Ouma Katrina Esau, the last fluent speaker of the endangered N|uu language, made it there despite poor health. At over 90 years old, she called it a dream come true. “I am so very thankful because God protected us. I am very glad to be here,” she said.
The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture worked with the South African Heritage Resources Agency and Iziko Museums to make this happen. Elodie Seotseng Tlhoaele, SAHRA’s chairperson, stressed the goal of bringing back respect.
Today, we are seeing the culmination of a process that sought to restore the human dignity of ancestors that were taken away from this land…exhumed from their graves and taken to foreign lands for scientific…academic research and for display to be consumed as objects. So, we are here to re-instil and restore that respect and human dignity to those ancestral remains in their homeland. This is a land and a space that is already hallowed ground.
She noted how the remains ended years of being treated as display items.
Workers dug 63 separate graves, each marked with care. No mass pit for these ancestors. This choice honors their humanity, just as colonial times denied it. As the sun set, President Ramaphosa looked ahead. He highlighted the National Policy on Repatriation and Restitution of Human Remains and Heritage Objects. South Africa plans to build more partnerships worldwide to bring home other stolen remains. For more on the lead-up, see the story about the President’s plan to officiate the reburial.