Thirty-six years after the 1985 bombing, surviving MOVE family members have finally laid to rest the human remains that were for decades held by the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University.
“The remains are finally free to move and cycle in the life with Mama,” said Janine Africa, a MOVE member. “That’s what we believe in, that everything goes back to Mama.”
Mama, or the elements of nature, is what others would call God, Janine explained.
The exchange happened after some of the MOVE mothers who lost children in the city-sanctioned bombing reached out to Penn Museum Director Christopher Woods for information. Janine said he met with them in person.
After filling out some paperwork, the official transfer took place on July 2, when MOVE members went to the Terry Funeral Home in West Philadelphia, according to Janine. The funeral home arranged to pick up the remains from former Penn pathologist Alan Mann’s home, the Tribune reported in late April.
Penn Museum did not offer details but did not deny the transfer had taken place. A spokesperson responded to WHYY News inquiries by saying an update would be posted on the museum website “when the time is right” out of “respect for the Africa Family.”
The remains have been buried by a tree in Bartram’s Garden, Janine said — the same tree where late MOVE member Consuewella Africa requested her ashes be scattered.
Consuewella died in June at age 67. Like others, she believed the remains in question belonged to her daughters Zanetta, 12, and Katricia Africa, 14, who were killed in the 1985 bombing.
Altogether, the May 1985 bombing of the Black liberation group killed 11 people, including five children. City leaders’ decision to let the subsequent fire burn made identifying the remains of the dead a difficult task.
The identity question is what led university researchers to hold the recently-returned remains for so long. It was also the subject of the public online forensics course in which a Penn Museum curator used the human bones as props.
When news broke in April that the universities still held these MOVE remains, protests erupted in West Philadelphia. Penn hired a firm to investigate how the museum mishandled the remains, and why they were held for so long. The investigation is ongoing.