The Djidji Ayokwe, a sacred "talking drum" which was looted by French colonial troops in 1916 and taken to France, arrived back in its home village in Ivory Coast on Friday.
The ceremony, on Ivory Coast's national independence day holiday, was the first time today's Ivorians were able to see it.
The imposing wooden drum, more than three metres (10 feet) long and weighing 430 kilogrammes, was used by the Ebrie tribe to transmit messages.
It was officially handed over in February and arrived back in Ivory Coast in March aboard a specially chartered plane but was not taken out of its huge wooden crate.
Ivory Coast had asked in late 2018 for the return of the Djidji Ayokwe among 148 works of art taken during the colonial period.
