Musical Colonization: Scots and Swedes in Southern Africa, 1770–1850

African music was transformed by European colonizers who, as part of their “civilizing missions” and violent military campaigns, imposed a tonal system that was unsuited to indigenous musical traditions.

Research in this area has so far focused on the standardization of missionary musical policies across the continent from the 1850s onwards.

But by examining earlier colonial exploration, expansion and settlement between 1770 and 1850 in southern Africa, this project analyses a messier, more multifaceted and even more significant musical colonization process. In so doing, Musical Colonization highlights two key groups: Scots and Swedes.

It was Scottish and Swedish travellers who, from the 1770s onwards, first transcribed and taxonomized different southern African musics.

It was Scottish folk songs and nationalist anthems that were heard in colonial settlements, while collections of African instruments went on display in Stockholm’s museums.

The overseers of the major missionary societies’ hymn-based “musical education” policies were Scottish and Swedish.

Through aesthetic and historical-geographical analysis of the varied musical categorizations, performances, collections and compositions of this diverse group of musical colonizers, this project sheds new light on these nations’ role in global colonialism and the expansion of colonial frontiers. This three-year project will also contribute a fuller conceptualization of how music works as a colonizing force.