French parliament votes to return sacred "talking drum" to Ivory Coast

The decision is made: France will return the sacred Djidji Ayôkwé drum to Ivory Coast.

This is result of a vote in the French National Assembly on Monday afternoon, which confirmed a similar vote in the French Senate in April.

The passed legislation allows for the historical artifact, nicknamed the "talking drum" for being used to communicate warning messages up to thirty kilometres between villages, to be declassified and eventually transferred to Abidjan.

Six years after Ivory Coast's request

The Djidji Ayôkwé drum was taken from Ivory Coast by the French army during the colonial period, in 1916. It weighs 530 kilograms and is three metres long.

Kept in various museums, the wooden drum was restored in 2022, following a return request by Ivory Coast three years earlier.

In November last year, the governments of both countries signed a deposit agreement, which paved the way for the valuable instrument's restitution.

France's legislative process to return stolen objects like the drum has however been criticised as overall slow. To date, only 27 historical artifacts taken during the colonial period have been returned to their countries of origin, notably Benin and Senegal.

But for the "talking drum", the only step left is the transfer to Ivory Coast.

While no date is yet known for the instrument's return, one thing is now certain: the drum's century-long unwanted exile will soon be coming to an end.