French MPs have unanimously adopted legislation allowing Paris to return to Cote d'Ivoire the Djidji Ayôkwé talking drum, which colonial troops seized from the Ebrié tribe in 1916.
The Djidji Ayokwe "talking drum" is one of tens of thousands of artworks and other prized artefacts looted by France during the reign of its colonial empire, from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century.
Three metres long and weighing 430 kilograms, the drum was used as a communication tool by the Atchan people to transmit messages between different areas.
The sound could be heard up to 20 kilometres away, enabling the convening of assemblies or the issuing of alerts in case of danger.
When in 1916 Atchan villagers refused to participate in road construction work linking Abidjan to Abobo, colonial authorities seized the drum in retaliation.
From 1922, it was exhibited at the Trocadéro Museum near the Eiffel Tower and a century later joined the Quai Branly Museum, where it was restored. It has been waiting there, in a crate, ever since.
Slow process
The drum is one item on a list of 148 works claimed by Abidjan, which submitted an official restitution request in 2019. Two years later, President Emmanuel Macron promised to return it along with other artefacts, but the process has been delayed.
The drum cannot be returned without a change in the law because it is part of France's public collections.
"Public collections belong to the state," says Vincent Negri, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and specialist in international cultural and heritage law. "They are protected by a regime of inalienability and imprescriptibility. This concept should be understood as a prohibition on the transfer of ownership."
The text adopted by MPs on Monday specifies that, by exemption, the drum ceases to be part of the collections.
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France lags behind
Without a framework of legislation concerning goods looted during the colonial period, France has no other option than to pass laws for each restituted object.
This was the case for the 26 treasures of Abomey returned to Benin in 2021 and the El Hadj Omar's sabre, returned to Senegal in 2019.
In 2023, two laws of this type were enacted – one concerning goods stolen from Jewish families during the Second World War and another on human remains held in public collections. The latest law has been slow to emerge, leaving France trailing behind when it comes to restitution.
"It's a paradox," notes Negri. "The momentum for restitution was set in motion following the Sarr-Savoy report, submitted to the president of the Republic in November 2018, but ultimately, the report had a [more] significant impact outside our borders."
He explains that while Germany has adopted a restitution policy, Belgium has passed a law and Switzerland is now considering a regulatory framework, "the lack of a parliamentary majority in France has prevented any clear, meaningful debate on the proposed framework law".
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'A liberation'
The legislation voted this week specifies that French authorities have one year to transfer the drum to Côte d'Ivoire.
Maurice Kouakou Bandaman, Ivorian ambassador to France, welcomed the unanimous vote "with lawmakers recognising the full value of this artefact, the wrong that was done to Côte d'Ivoire, to the Bidjan people, to the Tchaman (Ebrié) people, through this theft."
The Djidji Ayôkwé, he said, is not just an object, but "a symbol of resistance". "A resistance fighter was captured, kidnapped and has been held captive for a century. So this is a liberation."
This article was adapted from the original version in French, by Marie Casadebaig.
