By Lauren Boisvert
April 16, 2025 11:24 am
Toto‘s only No. 1 hit song, “Africa,” is a well-known standard if you regularly do karaoke or, say, were a member of The Harvard Undergraduate Drummers in 2019. Generally, it’s a song we all know. Some of us love it, some of us don’t, but no one can deny its staying power. Released in 1982, it’s still a staple of playlists everywhere.
Michael Hann
June 13 2018
Sometimes one wonders about the human capacity for mindless entertainment. There is on Twitter an account called @africabytotobot, which since August 2016 has done nothing but tweet out single lines from the 1982 single “Africa”by the soft rock band Toto. At the time of writing, it had offered the world 5,374 lines from the song, winning nearly 44,000 followers in the process. As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti, people love “Africa”.
Comments on Toto’s “Africa” range from deep appreciation for its nostalgic, epic sound and lyrical romance to criticism over its stereotypical and factually inaccurate portrayal of Africa, sparking debates on its cultural impact, musical genius (especially Jeff Porcaro’s drumming), and enduring appeal as a meme or internet phenomenon.
While some find it a beautiful, yearning love song to the continent, others find its colonial-era romanticism problematic, though many still enjoy its unique, compelling sound.
