21/7/2025–|Last update: 21:26 (Mecca time)
voice French Parliament In early July, a draft law submitted by the government aims to restore the holy royal drum to the state of Cote d’Ivoire, after more than 100 years of looting in the colonial era.
The drum known locally is classified as “Djidji Ayukoy”, or the speaking drum, affiliated with the ancient Ibrahim tribe, and was using a means of communication to transfer the warnings and various messages within the local community, and it is one of the most prominent Ivorian cultural symbols that the French colonizer looted during the period in which he controlled the country in the West Africa.
The French House of Representatives voted in early July a draft law stipulating the separation of drum from the holdings of the French National Museum and its formal return to the Cote d’Ivoire government, after the Senate passed the same step last April.
After the parliament’s vote by approving the draft law, the political authorities have become formally binding on returning the royal drum to its country, which it considers one of the most important national cultural symbols.
After more than 100 years, it is scheduled to display the drum after returning it to the Museum of Civilizations in Abidjan The economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire.
A victory for historical memory
This step approved by the French government is part of a broader transformation witnessed by the European discourse on the heritage of the looted peoples during the colonial era, in light of the escalation of African discourse on the need to expedite the restoration of the ancient cultural effects of the brown continent.
For his part, the leader of the Ibri Klavire tribe welcomed Agoygo Mobio with the French step, and considered it a victory for justice and historical memory.
He was the French president Emmanuel Macron In 2021, he pledged to return the drum in a group of other artifacts.
On the African level, governments and cultural organizations are making efforts to restore the cultural heritage that was transferred in the colonial eras by European countries.
In the state of Kenya, the national museums continue their efforts to restore the sacred symbols of the peoples of Masai, Kikwiu and the Swahilis, as well as archival materials and archaeological fragments held in European and American museums.