Thread by @ZahidDOAM

Skull No. 5942

#France returned the skulls of 24 #Algeria|ns decapitated while fighting French colonialists over 170 years ago.

One of the skulls returned was Sheikh Moussa Al-Derkaoui. Sheikh Moussa was an Egyptian, a student of Sheikh Muhammad bin Hamza Dhafir al-Madani.

Sheikh Moussa settled in central #Algeria in 1829 and joined the colonial resistance. He fought alongside Sheikh Bouziane who led the colonial resistance during the 1849 battle of Zaatcha, a village in northern #Algeria.

During the siege of Zaatcha, the Algerian resistance fighters under the leadership of Sheikh Bouziane fought against the French occupation forces led by General Emile Herbillonet. The siege had ended with the extermination of the local population of the oasis.

#Algeria #France

Sheikh Moussa and Sheikh Bouziane were both captured, decapitated and their heads paraded before their skulls were taken to #France as trophies and displayed in the Museum of Man in Paris.

#Algeria

Their skulls were returned yesterday, 171 years after the Battle of Zaatcha!

#France #Algeria