Jul 7, 02:22 PM

French Assembly Unanimously Approves Return of 1916 Talking Drum to Ivory Coast

The French National Assembly on 7 July unanimously passed a bill authorising the restitution of the Djidji Ayôkwé, a sacred “talking drum” confiscated in 1916, to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. All 111 deputies present voted in favour, endorsing a text already cleared in first reading by the Senate in April and aimed at removing the object from France’s inalienable public collections. Carved from a single tree trunk and weighing about 430 kilograms, the three-metre-long drum was used by the Ebrié people to relay ritual and community messages before it was seized by colonial forces and shipped to France. It has been held by the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris—most recently in storage after a 2022 restoration—while Abidjan’s official restitution request has been pending since 2019. President Emmanuel Macron publicly committed to its return in 2021. The instrument is the first of 148 works Ivory Coast has asked to recover and adds momentum to a wider debate on colonial-era collections. France has returned only 27 African artifacts since a 2020 law enabled object-by-object exemptions to the inalienability rule. Culture Minister Rachida Dati said the government will present a broader framework bill on restitutions by the end of July, seeking to streamline a process critics say remains piecemeal and slow.