Harvard returns skulls of enslaved individuals to Brazil

Two skulls believed to have belonged to enslaved Africans or Afro-Brazilians, including a participant in an 1835 slave revolt, were returned to Brazil after being kept in the United States since the 19th century. Harvard University had used the remains in racist eugenics studies at its Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Following a campaign that accelerated with government involvement in late 2024, Brazilian diplomats carried the remains back on flights in reinforced suitcases. Local universities will attempt to identify the individuals, and the Brazilian government has promised they will be buried with proper funeral rites. Officials and researchers emphasized the importance of confronting historical violence to understand modern structural racism. The repatriation was met with emotional ceremonies and traditional rituals in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro to restore dignity to the ancestors.