US EditionFrance Backs Returning Colonial-Era 'Talking Drum' to I.Coast
CÔTE D'IVOIRE, JUL 7 – The drum, weighing 430 kilograms, was taken in 1916 and its return is part of France's broader effort to repatriate colonial-era artefacts, with 90,000 objects held in French museums.
- On July 7, 2025, the French legislature authorized the removal of the Djidji Ayèkwé talking drum from national museum collections, allowing its repatriation to Ivory Coast.
- The drum was taken from the Ebrie tribe in 1916 by colonial troops, and Ivory Coast officially requested its return in 2018 among 148 looted works of art.
- The drum is over three meters long, weighs 430 kilograms, and was used to send warning messages across villages up to thirty kilometers apart.
- In 2021, Emmanuel Macron committed to returning the drum and other cultural artefacts to Africa, a move that Clavaire Aguego Mobio described as "highly historic" and symbolic of a renewed relationship with the continent.
- The drum’s century-long exile will soon end, but France’s legislative process for repatriation has faced criticism for being slow despite recent legal advances.
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50 Articles
Aisha and Pierre; The story of kindness that was not lost
As an infant in Côte d'Ivoire (Currently known as Ivory Coast), Pierre Dupont knew nothing of the world except the arms of one woman who embraced him with tenderness and warmth: his nanny Aisha. She was more than just a maid. She was like a second mother, feeding him, rocking him, and holding him whenever he cried, showering him with unforgettable love. But fate separated them for 38 years. Pierre's family left for France, and all news of Aisha …
A new work of African art, preserved in France, is on track to regain its original land. French deputies unanimously adopted on Monday 7 July a law allowing Paris to return to Côte d'Ivoire a drummer.
France Backs Returning Colonial-era 'Talking Drum' To I.Coast
France's parliament Monday approved returning to Ivory Coast a "talking drum" that colonial troops took from the Ebrie tribe in 1916, in the latest greenlight to the repatriation of colonial spoils.
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