France will return the talking drum looted in 1916 to Ivory Coast

“The entire Ivory Coast is ready to welcome him”said the Ivorian Minister of Culture on Friday February 20 after France returned the Djidji Ayôkwé talking drum, a sacred object which had been stolen during colonization. “It’s been 110 years since the talking drum left its people. He will finally find his land”welcomed the minister, Françoise Remarck, during a ceremony at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac museum, where it was kept.

A national ceremony will be organized in Abidjan to celebrate his return, which should take place by summer. The four-meter-long, richly decorated talking drum will then be exhibited “at a place of choice in the heart of the national museum”specified its director Gnoleba Francis Tagro, present in Paris with many senior Ivorian officials.

The Djidji Ayôkwé was seized in 1916 by the colonial authorities from the Ebrié ethnic group. According to the etnologist Henri Labouret, “in October 1916, administrator Simon, who then commanded the Lagunes circle in lower Côte d’Ivoire, was unable to obtain from the drunken natives, living in the village of Adjamé, the execution of work that they had to carry out on the road from Abidjan to Abobo-Té. He resolved to punish them for their ill will and, for this purpose, confiscated the drum in question to which the chief and the population seemed to attach a certain value. A version that some researchers criticize today. The drum was sent to France in 1929, exhibited at the Trocadéro museum then at the Quai Branly museum. “The journey of the talking drum bears witness to a part of the history that we share. A painful history where colonial domination and appropriation inflicted injury on those for whom this drum is the emblem of their memory and their culture.recalled the French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, who signed the act of transfer of ownership of the object.

After Benin and Senegal

President Emmanuel Macron made a commitment in 2021 to return the object, before Parliament gave the green light in 2025, allowing this cultural property to be declassified by departing from the principle of inalienability of public collections. Rachida Dati described“copy” the partnership between the two countries and welcomed “the peaceful way” with which the restitution process was carried out. The talking drum is the first object in a list of 148 works for which Côte d’Ivoire is requesting restitution from France and other countries.

Weighing 430 kg, the Djidji Ayôkwé was used to transmit ritual messages and to alert villagers, for example during forced recruitment or military enlistment operations. “For us, it’s much more than an instrument. It carries the entire memory of a people. He is one of the catalysts of our culture”underlined Paulin Claude Danho, vice-governor of Abidjan, dressed in traditional attire. “He left in pain 110 years ago. He returns in hope”he added at the end of the ceremony attended by the secretary general of the Organization of the Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo and the director general of UNESCO Khaled El-Enany.

The president of the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Emmanuel Kasarherou greeted “the new life” of the talking drum, which will be crated on Monday February 23 with a view to its transfer to Ivory Coast. The restitution process initiated by Emmanuel Macron in 2017 has already enabled the return of the 26 treasures from Abomey to Benin and the saber of El Hadj Omar to Senegal since 2020. Faced with the growing demands, the Senate adopted a framework law on January 29 to facilitate the removal of colonial property from French collections. It should soon be examined by the National Assembly.