Toto “Africa” Lyrics & Meaning (And How It Avoids Controversy)

You know the most amazing thing about Toto’s Africa?

That it has largely escaped blowback.

There was a bit of controversy, as you would expect, but thankfully, it was limited.

You’d definitely expect a song about Africa, written by a couple of white guys who had never been there, to take more heat.

But it didn’t because the songwriters have always acknowledged their lack of knowledge about Africa.

In fact, they leaned into it. At the heart of it, that’s the point of the Toto Africa lyrics meaning.

I’m sure someday soon, someone else will misinterpret the lyrics and try to make a big stink out of it. But they will fail, like those who tried in the past.

That’s how good job Toto did with the lyrics to this song and their attitudes about it.

Keep reading to learn exactly what Toto were singing about and why they never took much heat for writing a song about Africa full of stereotypical (and often inaccurate) imagery.

 

Toto Africa Lyrics And Meaning

Africa is the most famous song Toto ever released. By far. But it is not their only hit. They had several and Rosanna actually won a Grammy (Record of the Year), which Africa did not.

However, Africa was their biggest commercial success and is one of the most recognizable songs from the 1980s, period. From any band, not just from Toto.

Both Africa and Rosanna were included on Toto’s 1982 album Toto IV. Africa topped the Billboard Hot 100 (Rosanna made it to number 2) and it has endured ever since. It enjoyed a big resurgence in the mid to late 2010s.

The song was written by keyboardist and backup vocalist David Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro. The band almost didn’t include the song on the album, thinking it wasn’t any good and sounded too different from their other material.

Obviously, that would have been a mistake. The songs impact on popular culture has only grown with time, despite some controversy surrounding the lyrics. Let’s take a look at those now, before getting into their actual meaning.

 

Africa Lyrics

Verse 1

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She’s coming in, 12:30 flight
Her moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say
“Hurry, boy, it’s waiting there for you”

Chorus

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (Ooh)

Verse 2

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what’s right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what’s deep inside
Frightened of this thing that I’ve become

Chorus

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Hurry, boy, she’s waiting there for you

Chorus

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rains)
I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rains)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa (Gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

 

Africa Meaning

At first listen the song can come across as a simple love story between a man and a woman. The lyrics describe the majestic beauty of the vast, largely uncharted, continent of Africa, and present a man’s dilemma of having to choose between staying on that continent and returning home to the woman he loves.

However, according to David Paich, the song is actually about a man’s love for the continent of Africa itself. He explained that the lyrics were inspired by a late-night documentary he saw about the hardships faced by the people of Africa.

He drew on all the knowledge he had about Africa, which meant whatever he had seen on TV or heard about somewhere, like his time spent in a Catholic school with teachers who had done missionary work in Africa. As a result, the song includes the type of romanticized imagery you see on TV in the US.

A good example is the line referencing Kilimanjaro rising above the Serengeti as a symbol of the magnificence and mystery of the land. However, no one has ever seen Mount Kilimanjaro from the Serengeti. It is too far away.

For the overall story of the song, Paich imagined being in Africa and getting so involved in helping out there, that he found it difficult to tear himself away, even for the woman he loved. He wrestles with this decision he has to make: “I seek to cure what’s deep inside,
Frightened of this thing that I’ve become”.

Throughout the song, the lyrics are interspersed with lines that reflect the inner turmoil of the protagonist and the wildness and beauty of Africa, but in a way you might see in a documentary, like “wild dogs cry out in the night” or the line in the chorus “I bless the rains down in Africa.”

There are hints of various cultural influences in the song, the type of influences to which anyone of the band’s generation was also exposed. In addition to what you’d see on TV at the time, there was also the political climate of the time, including the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and writers like Joseph Conrad.

Conrad was a Polish-British writer whose novel Heart of Darkness takes place on the Congo River and explores themes of colonialism and the darker aspects of human nature. It is the novel that inspired Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 masterpiece Apocalypse Now.

 

Toto Africa Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts

Ever since Toto first released Africa, the songwriters have been very open and honest about what the song was, with co-writer Porcaro summing it up thusly: “a white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.”

It is their acknowledgement of this fact that has allowed them to skate past any controversy people have tried to raise and has led to Africa becoming an enduring part of popular culture.

The song has continued to resonate with new generations of listeners and has been covered or referenced by various artists, films, and television shows. Its legacy continues to grow.