Kilindini Docks: a case of ‘mondo music’?

This paper examines a case of ethnoforgery in postwar Italian popular music represented by the 1957 song "Kilindini Docks" and the 1959 album 8 African Ritual Songs. Presented as vernacular African music, these recordings were instead composed and arranged by Italian musicians and accompanied by a fabricated ethnographic narrative. Contributing to ongoing debates about cultural representation and the politics of musical invention in transnational popular music, this study sheds light on the songs' production, international dissemination, and reception, revealing how pseudo-African musical elements were strategically employed to construct a veneer of authenticity that was marketed globally for decades and remained largely unquestioned.