Correspondent
The remains of nine San and KhoiKhoi people were last week returned and reburied at their homeland, Sutherland after being unethically donated to the University of Cape Town in the 1920s by a medical student.
The repatriation and reburial ceremony follows years of collaboration with the University of Cape Town and representatives of the Khoisan communities. The process also flows from the approval of the MEC of Sport, Arts and Culture, Desery Fienies, as well as the issuing of a permit granted by the South African Heritage Resource Agency.
The Sutherland Reburial programme was held over three days starting on Friday, 24 November at UCT until Saturday, 25 November. The final stop was Sutherland on Sunday, 26 November.
The repatriation journey began with UCT’s efforts to track down the Sutherland 9’s descendants and speak with the Khoisan representatives involved. They became known as the ‘Sutherland 9’ after the location of where their bodies were discovered.
After the sacred human remains were identified as having been unethically donated to the UCT, the remains were carefully exhumed and the process of reburying was conducted with utmost sensitivity, acknowledging the spiritual significance of the land and the cultural protocols of the Khoisan people.
In a momentous and emotional ceremony, the families of the Sutherland 9 and Khoisan representatives participated in rituals that honoured the spirits of the departed and welcomed them back to their ancestral soil. The ceremony was not only a healing process for the Khoisan but also a call for broader societal awareness and reconciliation.
Speaking on the matter, Fienies emphasized the significance that the repatriation and reburial of the Sutherland 9 marked toward acknowledging and correcting historical injustices experienced by the Khoisan peoples in the country.
“The Sutherland 9 are no longer dehumanised study subjects for anthropology and racial research. The repatriation and reburial of the remains of those who suffered from the injustices of research institutions remain part of the government’s programme to restore the human dignity and historic injustice of our people who suffered for the purposes of scientific research. We are also here to undertake a crucial step towards the restoration of the San and Khoi people’s dignity”, said Fienies.
The repatriation and reburial of the Sutherland 9 served as testament to the strength of teamwork, cross-cultural empathy and the resilience of those committed to redressing past wrongs. As civilizations continue to battle with the impacts of colonization, the narrative of the Sutherland 9 serves as a compelling reminder of the ongoing quest for justice, peace, and the resurrection of indigenous traditions.
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