Toto’s classic hit “Africa” is one of those songs everyone knows and almost nobody can fully explain. David Paich, who had never been to Africa, has said the narrator is a social worker who fell in love with the continent. He based it on UNICEF commercials, National Geographic photographs, and stories his Catholic school teachers told him about their missionary work.
Here’s a section-by-section interpretation of the lyrics in “Africa.”
- Song: Africa
- Artist: Toto
- Songwriters: David Paich, Jeff Porcaro
- Released: 1982
- Album: Toto IV
- Genre: Synth-pop, Soft rock, Yacht rock
What is “Africa” About?
Verse 1: A Journey Begins
I hear the drums echoin’ tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
He’s out in Africa, fully immersed in the place, soaking up everything around him.
She’s on a plane coming to meet him, still in the ordinary world, not yet feeling what he feels about this place.
She’s comin’ in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
He’s romanticizing the whole thing.
To him, being in Africa means something larger than just being somewhere.
I stopped an old man along the way
Hopin’ to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He’s looking for some wisdom or understanding from this place that he’s built up in his imagination.
The old man represents the Africa he came here hoping to find.
He turned to me as if to say,
“Hurry, boy, it’s waitin’ there for you“
The old man’s message is open-ended. It could be that the experience he’s been chasing is right there if he’ll let himself have it. Or the old man could be urging him toward the woman coming in on that flight.
Later in the song, this line changes to “Hurry, boy, she’s waiting there for you.” The “it” becomes “she,” and in that case, “she” is definitely the woman.
Chorus: Nothing Could Pull Him Away
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothin’ that a hundred men or more could ever do
He’s completely devoted, whether “you” means Africa, the woman, or both.
Since the main theme of the song is this man recognizing that he’s missing out on a normal family life, he’s probably saying he’s so connected to this place and his work that it’s going to take a huge effort to make that change.
I bless the rains down in Africa
This line came from Paich’s Catholic school teachers, who told him they would bless the villagers, the crops, and the rain when it came.
He wrote it because it stuck with him, but also because, well, it’s just a great, memorable hook!
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
This is about the life he and the woman haven’t had yet.
He hasn’t had the chance to do the ordinary things that other people take for granted.
Verse 2: He Needs to Make a Change
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
The African wild dogs add to the atmosphere, but he’s also connecting his own restlessness to theirs.
“Solitary company” probably means shared peacefulness. This is what the narrator wants with the woman who’s coming to meet him.
I know that I must do what’s right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti are actually hundreds of miles apart, but the point is that he knows he has to make a big change in his life.
I seek to cure what’s deep inside
Frightened of this thing that I’ve become
Paich has said he was working so much as a musician that he’d lost track of having a normal life.
The social worker in the song faces the same thing. He’s devoted to a cause, but frightened by how much of himself he’s given to it, and what he’s missing out on (love, family, etc.).
“Africa” Song Meaning: Torn Between a Place and a Life
“Africa” is about a man who loves the continent (and his work there) so much that it’s become a problem. He has a woman coming to meet him and a relationship that represents the ordinary life he keeps putting off, but he can’t quite bring himself to choose it over the place that he’s fallen in love with.
Paich said the conundrum in the song is semi-autobiographical. He was so buried in his music career in the early 1980s that he couldn’t imagine stepping back long enough to build the kind of life his friends were building.
Songs Like “Africa”
Here are some great songs with similar themes:
1. “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett
Buffett’s classic is about a man who has drifted so far into a particular lifestyle that he can’t tell whether he chose it or stumbled into it.
Related: “Margaritaville” Meaning
2. “Sailing” by Christopher Cross
This 1979 soft rock track is about the feeling of being completely transported somewhere else, of escaping into a place or a state of mind that feels more real than ordinary life.
3. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver
This legendary folk rock tune is about having such a strong connection to a place that it pulls at you no matter how far you go.
Related: Best Songs About Home
Final Thoughts
I’ll admit that I had no idea what this song was about the first 50+ times I heard it. I felt a little better about that when I learned it was written very quickly and only makes complete sense if you try really hard to connect the dots. Still, it has some great, unique lines throughout and one of the best choruses of the ’80s.
Check out more 1980s Song Meanings!
