MPs to vote on the return of a sacred musical instrument stolen by France from Ivory Coast

Stolen over a century ago by France, the talking drum Djidji Ayôkwé is about to return to Côte d'Ivoire. A vote shortly after 3 p.m. this Monday, July 7, in the National Assembly is expected to validate this restitution, six years after Abidjan's official request. Measuring three meters long and weighing 430 kg, this sacred instrument was used to transmit ritual messages and alert villagers, for example during forced recruitment or military enlistment operations.

Seized in 1916 by the colonial authorities from the Ebrié ethnic group, it was sent to France in 1929, exhibited at the Trocadéro Museum and then at the Quai Branly Museum. Restored in 2022, it is now kept in a crate, awaiting its return. The return of this emblematic drum fulfills a commitment made by Emmanuel Macron in 2021. The bill debated in the House, and already adopted at the end of April in the Senate, allows for the "downgrading" of this cultural property, derogating from the principle of the inalienability of public collections.

Ivory Coast officially made its request in 2019. "But local communities have been asking for it since independence," according to Serge Alain Nhiang'O, founder of the Ivoire Black History Month association in Abidjan. It is the first item on a list of 148 works that Ivory Coast has requested be returned to France, and its return "could become a very powerful symbol," according to the activist. On the French side, this restitution is seen as an act of recognition. "The return of the drum will contribute to the reparation of an extortion committed during the colonial era, the witness of our awareness," affirmed MP Bertrand Sorre (Renaissance), rapporteur of the text, before the vote.

But this operation also highlights the slowness of the French process. To date, only 27 works have been officially returned to African countries since a law passed in December 2020, which allowed the return of the 26 treasures of Abomey to Benin and the saber of El Hadj Omar to Senegal. Considered a pioneer, France now appears to be "lagging behind" other Western countries, believes anthropologist Saskia Cousin, professor at the University of Nanterre, citing for example Germany, which has initiated a real inventory of works in museums, unlike France, where "there is clearly a withholding of information."

Repatriations are also taking place in dribs and drabs, in the absence of a framework law promised by the head of state to facilitate these processes, which has become a "red herring," explains the academic. It would make it possible to avoid a specific law for each restitution, a long and complex process, by derogating from the principle of inalienability of public collections by decree. In 2023, France adopted two framework laws: one to return property looted during the Second World War to Jewish families, the other to regulate the return of human remains from public collections. But the third law, announced for objects looted during colonization, has still not seen the light of day.

In 2024, a text was submitted to the Council of State. In an opinion revealed by Le Monde , the court requested a new review, considering that restitution should be based on a "higher general interest" similar to that identified with regard to property looted by the Nazis. According to the newspaper, the reason for restitution mentioned in the text was cultural cooperation with former colonies. In the eyes of the Council of State, this would not be sufficient to justify an infringement of the inalienability of public collections.

For some, demanding a "higher general interest" would amount to making the project a text of "repentance" on colonization, a debate that the executive seems to want to avoid. Saskia Cousin, France "does not have a problem" with restitution, but a problem with "the way it thinks about its imperial past." Pressed by the deputies of the Cultural Affairs Committee on the future of this law, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati affirmed last week that the text had indeed been the subject of new work, and that she wished to present it to the Council of Ministers by the end of July. The mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris hopes for a debate in Parliament before the end of the year, while affirming that she wants to avoid it opening the "door to instrumentalization."