"Africa" became a big hit because it has a pleasant melody, fine harmonies, and great production values. It was an early example of what came to be known as the "80s power ballad." But the lyrics never made a bit of sense. Toto's David Paich, who wrote the song, admitted he knew nothing about Africa but what he'd seen on TV. So how accurate is the song? Focusing on the line "I bless the rains down in Africa," Mel magazine asked three weather experts for their opinions: Professor of Meteorology Peter Knippertz, Nigerian meteorologist and oceanographer Kenya Samson Levi, and South African TV weatherman Simon Gear. They talked about a lot more than just the weather.
Knippertz: If you read through the lyrics, you read about drums, wild dogs and the wise man with ancient melodies — it’s like a tourist catalog of images from Africa, which of course has little to do with the day-to-day realities of the real Africa.
“The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company”
Gear: There are no wild dogs calling to each other in the night! That doesn’t exist. I’m not only a meteorologist, I’m also a Savannah ecologist, and the concept of wild dogs calling to each other in the night irritates me immensely, because wild dogs don’t call to each other in the night at all. They don’t even really call to each other during the day! They’re thinking of hyenas, not dogs.
“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”
Gear: It’s mildly insulting that they even mention Olympus in this song because Kilimanjaro is maybe five, even 10 times higher than Olympus. It’s a massive mountain, whereas Olympus is a pimple. Though it is indeed the Serengeti that it looks over, so that was accurate.
What really floored me was an image of the single's picture disc. It is a map of Africa, with countries like Rhodesia, South West Africa, and Zaire. Those are now Zimbabwe, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That speaks to how very long ago 1982 really was. Read the rest of the critique at Mel magazine. -via Digg