Inventing the discovery of a manufactured 'African' sound. Transnational circulation, adaptations and appropriations of 'Kilindini Docks'

In the late 1950s, a small corpus of music allegedly featuring traditional African melodies and rhythms emerged within Italy's popular music industry. Some of these songs were quickly "exported" to Europe and the Americas, recorded by international artists. My paper will begin with an examination of the origins as well as the national circulation of these pieces of music, which were initially released as singles and then collected in an album. I then will look at their various international adaptations and appropriations in different languages and markets. Finally, I will discuss the ethnic stereotyping and the construction of "authenticity" in exotica music in Italy and abroad, trying to understand this collection of pseudo-African songs within the context of the calypso craze, which was often accompanied by ethnic stereotyping and the colonialist practice of manufacturing a 'traditional' sound representative of a territory or a people.