Reportage

France: desacralization of the "talking drum" before its return to Côte d'Ivoire

Ritual ceremony, this Monday, November 7, 2022, at the musée du quai Branly, in Paris, in the presence of members of the Bidjan community, with a view to the desecration of the "talking" drum, the Djidji Ayôkwé, before its return to the Côte d' Ivory.

© Pierre Firtion/RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

In France, the countdown has started.

Paris will soon return to Côte d'Ivoire a slit drum, the Djidji Ayokwe.

A unique object, 3.31 meters and 430 kilos which belonged to the Chaman people and more precisely to the Bidjan community.

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Qualified as a "talker", this drum was more than a musical instrument, it was a communication tool.

It allowed these people of the region of Abidjan to warn the villages when the French colonists came to requisition the populations.

The object was looted by the French in 1916. Paris agreed last year to return it, but before its return, a restoration is necessary.

To allow the restoration of this sacred object, a ritual ceremony was organized, this Monday, November 7, at the Quai-Branly Museum, in the presence of members of the Bidjan community.

Strolling towards the museum where the drum is currently on display, the ten representatives of the Bidjan community - including three village chiefs - first sang war songs with the help of a horn and a drum. , as their ancestors did before going into battle.

Once they arrived in the room, the ritual ceremony could begin.

This Monday at @quaibranly, members of the #Bidjan community, in a secret language, desecrated the #Djidji #Ayôkwé to allow profane hands to restore this drum, which #France will soon return to the Côte d' Ivory #CIV pic.twitter.com/bFh5nSlKXJ

— Pierre Firtion (@pedrofirtion) November 7, 2022

Community members have undertaken the desacralization of the drum, asking the spirit within to withdraw.

They circled the Djidji Ayokwe seven times, to show the number of Bidjan villages.

A libation was also made by the chief of Bidjan's oldest village, Cocody village.

This ceremony was necessary to allow profane hands to restore this sacred object.

Its base is indeed infested by termites.

And for good reason: the Djidji Ayôkwé remained outside, from 1916 to 1930, placed on the ground in the gardens of the residence of the colonial administrator in Bingerville.

A specialized company will therefore be responsible for consolidating the drum and placing it on a base, restoration work which should begin on November 15.

Ceremony of desecration of the “talking drum” - Report

Pierre Firtion

Return process

This return of the talking drum, Djidji Ayokwe, is therefore prepared by the Bidjan communities of the village of Abidjan-Adjamé.

The drum should be returned to them in 2023. Bénédicte Savoy, art historian and co-author of a report on African heritage, discusses the blockages that have so far delayed this process.

For 100 years, Europeans have mainly suffered from a psychological block.

It was practically impossible for them to think about restitution.

This great blockage is gone.

The other blockage which accompanied it which was a so-called legislative blockage, that is to say that France always announced the argument of the inalienability of the collections, of the imprescriptibility of the spoliations.

These legal elements were canceled by a new law which allowed the restitution of the 26 coins of the Republic of Benin.

For the drum, a law must also be passed in Parliament and in the current parliamentary situation in France, it is a matter of time, probably...

Bénédicte Savoy, art historian

Bineta Diagne

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