Swiss town hands three artefacts back to South Africa

The Swiss town of Neuchatel on Tuesday handed over to South Africa three artefacts that had spent more than a century in one of its museums.

The set of 30 divining bones in a woven basket, a bull's foot bone used as an amulet, and a walking staff were purchased by Swiss missionary and ethnographer Henri-Alexandre Junod.

The items came from the regent of the Nkuna chiefdom's Shilubana royal family, with whom Junod had become close friends. They were then brought back to Neuchatel in northwest Switzerland.

The return of the items comes ahead of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's state visit to Switzerland on Wednesday and Thursday.

"Neuchatel today handed over to South Africa three objects of symbolic and religious significance that had been housed in the collections of the Ethnog