King Badu Bonsu II of Ghana is going home. Just not entirely.

The head of the African king is to be returned 170 years after it was hacked off in retaliation for the slayings of two Dutch emissaries whose skulls were hung from the tribal leader’s throne.

Hm, I guess you really don’t mess with the Dutch. Eek!

The prominent Dutch author Arthur Japin said he discovered Bonsu’s head last year, sitting in a jar of formaldehyde at the Leiden University Medical Center’s anatomical collection. He was researching material for a historical book.

Ghana immediately requested the head’s return, and the Dutch government asked the hospital to cooperate.

Eric Odoi-Anim, a minister at the Ghanian Embassy, explained that “without burial of the head, the deceased will be hunted in the afterlife. He’s incomplete.”

via Royalblog.nl.