The Djidji Ayokwe, a sacred "talking drum" used by the Ebrie people of Ivory Coast to transmit messages and warn of colonial threats, has been formally returned to its home village of Adjame in Abidjan after more than a century in France. The imposing wooden drum — over three metres long and weighing 430 kilograms — was seized by French colonial troops in 1916, shipped to Europe in 1929, and exhibited in Paris for decades before being officially handed back following a 2018 repatriation request. Its public unveiling on Friday, Ivory Coast's national independence day, drew hundreds of residents, traditional leaders, and government officials in an emotional ceremony that underscores growing international pressure on Western institutions to return cultural artefacts taken from former colonies.