South African Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie speaks behind the Zimbabwean Bird, a soapstone sculpture of national significance, at a repatriation handover event at the Iziko South African Museum, in Cape Town, on April 14, 2026. South Africa on Tuesday handed back to Zimbabwe ancestral human remains and a centuries-old stone carving of its sacred national emblem, the Zimbabwe bird, taken more than 100 years ago during the colonial era. The restitution was part of a worldwide push for artefacts looted from African countries during the colonial era to be repatriated. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP via Getty Images)