French parliament votes to return sacred “talking drum” to Ivory Soar

The resolution is made: France will return the sacred Djidji Ayôkwé drum to Ivory Soar.

Here’s result of a vote in the French National Assembly on Monday afternoon, which confirmed a an analogous vote in the French Senate in April.

The passed legislation enables for the historical artifact, nicknamed the “talking drum” for being weak to keep up a correspondence warning messages up to thirty kilometres between villages, to be declassified and at final transferred to Abidjan.

Six years after Ivory Soar’s demand of

The Djidji Ayôkwé drum used to be taken from Ivory Soar by the French navy proper by the colonial interval, in 1916. It weighs 530 kilograms and is three metres long.

Stored in diversified museums, the wooden drum used to be restored in 2022, following a return demand of by Ivory Soar three years earlier.

In November final twelve months, the governments of both countries signed a deposit agreement, which paved the methodology for the dear instrument’s restitution.

France’s legislative route of to return stolen objects enjoy the drum has nonetheless been criticised as total dull. To date, finest 27 historical artifacts taken proper by the colonial interval had been returned to their countries of origin, notably Benin and Senegal.

But for the “talking drum”, the correct step left is the switch to Ivory Soar.

While no date is yet known for the instrument’s return, one thing is now obvious: the drum’s century-long undesirable exile will soon be coming to an pause.