Severed head and limbs, a tooth: bloody trophies that European colonialists took from Africa

The severed head of Kenya’s Koitalel Arap Samoei

Members of the Nandi group, an East African ethnic tribe based in Kenya, recently urged Britain to return the severed head of Koitalel Arap Samoei, a spiritual leader who was killed in 1905 when the country was under Britain’s colonial rule.

Samoei had led his community during a prolonged rebellion against the British. He was killed by a British officer named Richard Meinertzhagen, who lured him to a meeting to discuss truce, but shot him instead. Samoei’s head was then severed from his body and shipped to England as a trophy, according to widely recorded testimony.

There is no clarity on where Samoei’s skull currently is. According to a report in The New York Times, the Nandi County government believes that it is either in the possession of a museum in Britain, or it is with the Meinertzhagen family. Neither the British government nor any of the prominent museums have commented on the matter.

The gold tooth of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba

In June this year, the Belgian government returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo a gold-crowned tooth of Patrice Lumumba, the hero of the country’s freedom movement who went on to become its first Prime Minister after liberation from Belgium in 1960.

Belgium finally returns a gold crowned tooth belonging to Patrice Lumumba who remains a hero of the anti colonial struggle. This is the last remains of Lumumba. It was kept as a trophy by a Belgian police officer. The rest of his remains was dissolved in acid. pic.twitter.com/kbDlB1NLou

— Norbert Mao (@norbertmao) June 20, 2022

Lumumba, who was considered close to the USSR during the Cold War, was regarded with suspicion by Belgium and other European nations.

While delivering a speech on Independence Day in 1960, Lumumba accused Belgium of holding the people of Congo in “humiliating slavery”, demonstrating a stridency that outraged many Europeans. Months afterwards, following a coup by Colonel Mobutu, Lumumba, who was 35 years old at the time, was executed by secessionist forces who were actively assisted by Belgian officials.

Lumumba’s body was initially thrown into a shallow grave but was later dug up, dismembered, and dissolved in acid so as to leave no trace of it behind. Belgian policeman Gerard Soete, who had the task of getting rid of the body, took Lumumba’s gold-crowned tooth back with him to Belgium, according to a report in the BBC. It was finally returned to Lumumba’s family and given a proper burial over 60 years after his death.

The hands of Congolese workers

So brutal was Belgian King Leopold II’s rule in the Congo Free State that, according to some estimates, almost 10 million Congolese were killed in the first 25 years of his regime, which started in 1885. The deaths were due to inhuman labour conditions, relentless violence by Belgian companies, and multiple fatal diseases.

The Belgian colonialists turned the country into a vast labour camp, and indiscriminately looted its resources. Those who refused to work were killed, and sometimes entire villages were destroyed in retribution, according to historical records. Workers who couldn’t meet their quota of rubber collection were punished by amputation of their hands and feet, a punishment that was sometimes extended to their wives and children as well.

In a particularly perverse action, the severed limbs were collected, often of the dead but sometimes even of those who were still alive, to prove that the soldiers were not wasting their ammunition. The limbs were reportedly “smoked” and preserved, and presented in bunches to their commanders. The higher the number of amputated limbs presented by a soldier, the greater the reward he received.