What are the distinctive features of pre-colonial African culture that might challenge and supplement the central assumptions of the Western order of time? This course investigates some of the traditional musical in Africa, including the Lubiri Court in Kampala, Uganda, the ancient Mapungubwe site in South Africa, and the Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo, Zimbabwe to address this fundamental question. We focus on various genres, including ennanga harp, amadinda, akadinda, and embaire xylophone music, and baaksimba drumming, as well as music of the matepe and mbira dza vadzimu, the timbila xylophone, and Nyungwe panpipes. These are powerful musical traditions caught in the vexing crosshairs of colonial collaboration and coercion. The aim of the course is to move beyond critical commentary on this tragic history alone, and offer regenerative insight into the workings of pre-colonial African ideas. Amadinda music, for example, offers a mode of patterning both pitch and time that challenges the global-hegemonic organizational principles of musical temporality and tonality. Note: Pending feasible international travel conditions, this course will include a seminar in South Africa.