In 2016, Tchendukua launched a highly symbolic project called “ZIGONESHI”. 500 years after the invasion of the colonizers and the era of barbarism that followed, the aim was to cross the Atlantic Ocean once more, from east to west, with a boat carrying a message of brotherhood to the Kogis.
When she heard about this project, the Belgian baroness Dora JANSEN, a major collector of pre-Columbian art, expressed a wish that items she had held in her collection for over 30 years might be returned to the Kogis. On board the boat ‘Zigoneshi’, skippered by Olivier JEHL, these gold artefacts – breastplates, bowls and bracelets – crossed the ocean once more to be returned to the Kogis and to return to their ‘homeland’. When the white sail of the small 6.5-metre yacht appeared on the horizon, the 150 Kogis—men, women and children—gathered on the beach for the occasion rose to their feet, moving slowly towards the shore. Several mamas and sagas were present. Squinting, their gaze lost on the horizon, they watch the boat draw gently closer to the shore. “The gold is returning. The mother called for it and it is coming back,” whispers Miguel, one of the mamas present that day.
A wooden crate, which is unloaded, is opened on the beach. One by one, the objects are removed from their protective packaging and presented to the Kogis. For the first time, gold artefacts were to be returned to their “owners”, after having been looted from their ancestors’ graves. The emotion is palpable, eyes fixed on the scene. In the presence of Colombian officials from the Ministry of Tourism, the French Ambassador to Colombia, and journalists from France 2 and Le Figaro Magazine, the objects were examined, touched, turned over… Are they really real? the observers’ gazes seemed to ask. Do these objects lying on the beach really exist? Suddenly, in this part of the world where it hasn’t rained for many years, a few drops of rain… With a pensive expression, a mama looks up at the sky, “It’s the mother, she’s crying. She’s so happy to see her children return.”