A sacred “talking drum” known as the Djidji Ayôkwé, looted from Côte d’Ivoire by French colonial troops over a century ago, returned this month to the place where it was made. The ten-foot-long, 940-pound drum has a single-piece cylindrical soundbox slit in half longitudinally. Between 1916 and 1930, the Djidji Ayôkwé was kept outside the French governor’s Ivorian home. It arrived in Côte d’Ivoire in March but had not been taken out of its crate until now. There it was met by Ivorian minister of culture Francoise Remarck, along with local dignitaries and residents.