In an eventual move in reclaiming cultural heritage, on Friday, traditional chiefs in crowns and gold chains assembled in Ivory Coast main airport as the first of a larger initiative to crack down on colonial heritage by returning the homecoming of the “Djidji Ayokwè” talking drum, a mammoth artifact measuring more than three meters and weighing nearly 400 kilograms, looted more than 100 years ago and being the very first to be sent back to Ivory Coast.
On Friday, traditional chiefs with crowns and gold chains assembled at the Ivory Coast’s main airport to receive the arrival of a “talking drum” that had been looted over a hundred years ago, the first of the artefacts that this former French colony got back.
Drum Djidji Ayokwè, which translates to Panther-Lion in the Atchan language, is longer than three metres and weighs almost 400 kg, as stated by the culture ministry of the Ivory Coast.
The Atchan people of the southern Ivory Coast used it to warn locals of forced labour activities being conducted by colonisers, as well as to organise fighters.
The Ivanian culture ministry is demanding the amount of 148 items to be returned by France and the talking drum that was exhibited in the Quai Branly Museum in Paris is the first item to be returned.
The talking drum was seized in 1916, first stored in the palace of the governor in Abidjan, and later, in 1930, it was transported to France at the request of the culture ministry.
“It is a historic day, and I am very touched, the minister of culture and Francophonie of the Ivory Coast,” Francoise Remarck, said at a ceremony on Friday, interrupted by traditional songs and war dances.
There has been increased pressure over the past few years on the former colonial powers, like France and Britain, to give back artefacts that were taken back to Africa and Asia.
Wearing a traditional loincloth, Gervais Djoman, the chief of an Atchan village, said to Reuters on Friday that the re-emergence of the talking drum was a joy and pride to the Atchan people. “Something had been stolen out of us, psychologically, you see,” he said.
