For more than 130 years, one of Zimbabwe’s most sacred national symbols sat in a foreign land — a piece of a civilization’s heritage taken by force and never returned. Until now.
On April 15–16, 2026, Zimbabwe welcomed home the final Zimbabwe Bird soapstone sculpture that had been held in South Africa, along with eight ancestral human remains looted during the colonial era. The handover ceremony was conducted by South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, marking one of the most significant acts of cultural repatriation in modern African history.
The Zimbabwe Bird — a soapstone sculpture carved by the Shona people in the 11th to 15th centuries at Great Zimbabwe — is the centerpiece of the nation’s coat of arms and flag. It represents the bateleur eagle, known in Shona as chapungu, believed to be a messenger between the living and the ancestors. For centuries, these sculptures stood as spiritual guardians within the ancient stone city of Great Zimbabwe, which spans 730 hectares and is the largest ancient stone structure in sub-Saharan Africa.
The sculpture now being returned was taken in 1889 by European hunter Willi Posselt, who climbed the sacred site despite warnings from local people, hacked the bird from its pedestal, and later sold it to Cecil Rhodes. It ended up in the collection of South Africa’s Department of Sports, Arts and Culture — held for decades as a relic of colonial extraction.
In 1981, South Africa returned four of the original eight birds. The fifth remained — until now. With this repatriation, Zimbabwe now holds all its sacred birds save one, which remains at Groote Schuur in Cape Town, once Rhodes’ residence.
“This is not just a stone coming home,” said Edward Matenga, the archaeologist who documented Zimbabwe’s bird sculptures. “It is our ancestors’ voice returning to speak for our nation.”
The return ceremony, held at the Natural History Museum in Bulawayo, drew thousands of Zimbabweans who came to witness the homecoming. President Emmerson Mnangagwa called it “a restoration of dignity and a demand for justice that has been denied for far too long.”
The repatriation also underscores a growing continental movement demanding European museums and governments return African cultural artifacts. Germany returned a portion of a bird’s pedestal in 2003; Belgium held a Legacies of Stone exhibition in 1997 that helped build pressure for that return. Now, advocates say, the focus must shift to the British Museum, the Louvre, and other institutions still holding African heritage.
Alongside the bird, eight ancestral human remains — also taken during colonial raids — were handed over in a ceremony that combined state protocol with traditional Shona spiritual practice. Families who had waited generations for the return of their forebears wept openly as elders performed the kupomba requiem rites.
The message from Harare to the world was clear: Africa’s heritage belongs to Africa. And the long-deferred work of bringing it home has finally begun in earnest.
Image: Zimbabwe Bird sculpture, Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)