Ivory Coast welcomes 'talking drum', first artifact sent back from France

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ABIDJAN, March 13 (Reuters) - Traditional chiefs wearing crowns and gold chains gathered at Ivory Coast’s main airport on Friday to welcome ​the return of a “talking drum” looted more than a ‌century ago, the first artifact returned to the West African country by former colonial power France.

The drum - known as “Djidji Ayokwè”, meaning Panther-Lion in the Atchan ​language - is more than three metres long and weighs ​nearly 400 kg, according to Ivory Coast’s culture ministry.

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It ⁠was used by the Atchan people, native to southern Ivory Coast, ​to alert locals to forced labour operations being carried out by ​colonizers and to mobilize fighters.

The Ivorian culture ministry is seeking the restitution of 148 artifacts from France, and the talking drum, previously displayed at the ​Quai Branly Museum in Paris, is the first to make ​the return journey.

Confiscated in 1916, the talking drum was initially kept at the ‌governor’s ⁠palace in Abidjan before being sent to France in 1930, according to the culture ministry.

“This is a historic day, and I am deeply moved,” Françoise Remarck, Ivory Coast’s minister of culture and Francophonie, ​said during Friday’s ​ceremony, punctuated ⁠by traditional songs and war dances.

Pressure has grown in recent years for former colonial powers such as ​France and Britain to return artefacts taken from ​Africa ⁠and Asia.

Donning a traditional loincloth, Gervais Djoman, chief of an Atchan village, told Reuters on Friday that the return of the talking drum ⁠was ​a source of joy and pride for ​the Atchan people. “We are reclaiming our identity. Psychologically, something had been taken from us,” ​he said.

Reporting and writing by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet

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