Ivory Coast Reclaims Sacred Talking Drum Looted by French Forces 110 Years Ago

A nearly four-metre wooden crate stamped "fragile" touched down on a specially chartered plane at Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport on March 13, carrying the Djidji Ayôkwé back to Ivory Coast for the first time in 110 years. The sacred talking drum, carved from iroko wood and weighing 430 kilograms, was greeted on the presidential pavilion esplanade by traditional chiefs of the Atchan ethnic community, Ebrié drummers, and Ivorian Culture Minister Françoise Remarck, who watched as the crate was lifted from the aircraft to the sound of singing and drums.

"It's a historic day and I feel deep emotion," Remarck told reporters. "We are living a moment of justice and remembrance that finally marks the return of the Djidji Ayôkwé to its land of origin."

The drum, also known as Djidji Ayokwe (Panther Lion), stretches more than three metres in length and was traditionally used by the Ebrié community to transmit messages across the Abidjan area: warning of approaching danger, mobilising people for war, and summoning villages to ceremonies. French colonial troops seized it in 1916 and shipped it to France, where it remained in national museum collections for over a century.

The road back was long and procedurally complex. Ivory Coast formally requested the drum's return in late 2018, listing it among 148 works of art taken during the colonial period. French President Emmanuel Macron publicly promised to send it back in 2021. The legal barrier was finally cleared on February 20, 2026, when France's parliament passed a special law authorising its restitution and removing it from the national museum collections. The Djidji Ayôkwé is the first object from Ivory Coast's list of 148 to be officially returned.

The drum will not be unveiled immediately. It will remain sealed inside its crate for an acclimatization period before being removed in April. It is then scheduled for permanent public display at the Museum of Civilisations in Abidjan, which has been renovated specifically for the occasion. Francis Tagro, the museum's director, said it would be placed "in a place of honour in the heart of the national museum."

"We are deeply happy and proud to receive this sacred drum," Tagro said. "It means so much to us, it will elevate the sense of culture of the young generation."

Remarck also credited the process to "exemplary cooperation between France and Côte d'Ivoire." The return sits within France's broader repatriation effort, which began in 2017 and has already seen the Abomey royal treasures returned to Benin and a historic sabre repatriated to Senegal. France is now preparing to accelerate the process further through legislation enabling mass repatriations across Africa.

For the Ebrié and Atchan communities whose ancestors carved and played it, the drum's homecoming closes a silence that lasted 110 years.