Hurry Boy, Paternalism is Waiting there for You!: Problematic Ethos in Toto’s “Africa”

 

 

Madison Ramey

 

 

 

Albeit a catchy piece of pop music, the classic hit from the 1980s has a dark side. The band that brought us “Rosanna” and “Hold the Line” also introduces a detailed case study in racial discourse (“Toto Songs”). Releasing “Africa” in 1982 with good intentions, the song was a deliberative flop in that it did little to achieve its intended ends. Though Toto meant for “Africa” to inspire Americans to help those in need, the lyrics of the song and the music video function as harmful iterations of a paternalistic ideology through the ambiguous intended and received ethos of the rhetor.

Toto’s “Africa” is a song about a man presumably walking on foot to an African airport to meet his lover, all the while proclaiming the extent of his love by referencing the geographic characteristics of the continent. The music video, however, doesn’t act to supplement the literal message of the lyrics. Instead, it focuses on David Paich, songwriter and lead singer of Toto, and a colleague researching documents concerning African tourism and history in a library set in a densely forested area.

 

Intended Ethos and Hints of Humanitarianism:

            With the creation of MTV in 1981, performers utilized the music video industry to better promote their singles and albums, providing visual appeals in addition to the preexisting auditory and textual song. It can therefore be deduced that Toto was one of the first musical bands to employ the use of the music video to advocate a humanitarian purpose in 1982. “At the beginning of the ‘80s,” Paich reveals “I watched a late night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of the people in Africa. It moved and appalled me and the pictures just wouldn’t leave my head. I tried to imagine how I’d feel about [it] if I was there and what I’d do” (Flans). This period of turmoil that Paich is referring to is the era of Apartheid that occurred specifically in South Africa reached an all-time high in terms of popular protest. Legislation supporting the segregation of races installed by the government caused havoc with regards to standards of living (“Apartheid”). Because a simple pop song released in America can hardly have dreams of changing foreign political policy, it is an interesting discussion when other bands were contemporarily performing similar songs that are, in retrospect, acceptably more successful at invoking Toto’s purpose. The Irish band, U2, for example released a song called “Silver and Gold” that is more popularly attributed to relief in South Africa. The lyrics are hard-hitting and concern a man “who's sick of looking down the barrel of white South Africa. A man who is at the point where he is ready to take up arms against his oppressor. A man who has lost faith in the peacemakers of the west” (“Silver and Gold”).  Steven Van Zandt, former band member of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, wrote “Sun City” about an interracial gambling resort located in a Bantustan, a nominally independent area supposedly ruled by black Africans, in the middle of an impoverished rural homeland” (“Sun City”). Providing solidarity in the lyrics (“We’re stabbing our brothers and our sisters in the back”), “Sun City” provided an explicit message. This single alone “raised more than a million U.S. dollars for anti-apartheid projects” whereas Toto did little to capitalize on any monetary aid or awareness they might have raised (“Sun City”). Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie led USA for Africa and recorded the song “We Are the World”, raising considerable profits to end the famine in Ethiopia by similarly providing a sense of a collective effort in the lyrics (Glave). Interestingly, Toto’s “Africa” preceded the aforementioned examples by a few years. The questionable success of the artifact is justifiable considering its innovation in terms of its means of conveying a greater and helpful message; however, the rhetorical devices instituted by the means are hardly permissible and are largely problematic. 

 

Reception of Ethos and Perpetuation of Paternalism:           

            Toto’s intended ethos different greatly from the credence derived by audience reception, causing the humanitarian undertones to be widely overlooked. Originally viewed as nonsensical and even catchy in its irrelevancy, the lyrics promoted old stereotypes of the continent while the music video increased the ambiguity of the text, solidifying a subjecting argument. Paich, alongside his fellow members of Toto, admit to nonsensical lyrics, allowing for polysemic readings of the text that detrimentally affect the transition between the rhetor’s intended ethos and a damaging ethos determined by audience reception.

 

 

 

The lyrics of the first verse are as follows: I hear the drums echoing tonight/ But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation/ She’s coming in twelve-thirty 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” (Toto). In the text, it is to be assumed that it is written from the perspective of someone that lives in Africa who is waiting for their lover to arrive. The phrase, “I stopped an old man along the way, hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies”, emphasizes a problematic theme in the development of paternalistic ideologies. Defined by cultural anthropologist Renato Rosaldo, colonial nostalgia is an omnipresent institution placed by empires concerning subverted representations that states “putatively static savage societies become a stable reference point for defining (the felicitous progress of) civilized identity […] When the so-called civilizing process destabilizes forms of life, the agents of change experience transformations of other cultures as if they were personal losses” (Rosaldo). Colonial nostalgia is evident, as the African people (the people of an entire continent) are represented by the one “old man”, spewing out aged wisdom to solidify the idea that the people are stuck in the past and show little sign of societal progress. Toto’s “Africa” provides a single mentioning of the African people; the “old man” becomes the one representation of the rich and diverse cultures of an entire continent. Expounding the problematic simplification of the cultures of an entire continent, the “old man” acts as a vehicle for colonial nostalgia. This combination of simplifying representation and the perpetuation of colonial nostalgia further emphasizes the challenging text of “Africa”: not only are the elderly in Africa stuck in the past, but everyone on the continent is. 

 

 

 

The exigency of the period required the song to be understood within the scope of the deliberative genre. As stated previously, Paich argued that the original purpose of “Africa” was to create support for those suffering from hunger and poor living conditions in Africa during Apartheid, the ideal function of the genre when successful. However, because the mistaken ethos undermined the inherent power of the artifact, “Africa” fails to be deliberative in that it is unable to provide solutions and motivations for the future. Study of the telos, here, reveals that Paich’s original intention was not matched by audience reception due to his ambiguous ethos. The disjunction between genre and intent mandates that the rhetoric of Toto’s “Africa” be analyzed with the standards of epideictic genre. Celebrating the present in order to praise or place blame, epideictic rhetoric provides allowance of a broader interpretation of the “old man” lyric, implicitly placing the blame of Africa’s strife on the inability to keep up with international progress. The epideictic reading of “Africa” reiterates the racism inherent in the problematic stereotype.

Toto continues the misinterpretations through the verses of “Africa”, exacerbating the problems of the rhetor’s ambiguous ethos. Uninformed activism occurs when the intentions are good but the activist is unaware of the foundational crisis; uninformed activism is made geographically obvious in Toto’s “Africa”. The second verse continues, “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/ 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” (Toto). Here, Paich emphasizes his conviction in doing “what’s right” by referencing the geography of the continent. Aligning his certainty with a mountain believed by ancient Greeks to be the “abode of the gods”, Paich and his fellow band members are laughably mistaken as it is physically impossible to see Kilimanjaro from the Serengeti (“Olympus”). Misplaced conviction continues the destruction of Toto’s intended ethos, replacing it with a confused and ambiguous reading in which the audience finds little faith in Toto’s activist knowledge.

 

 

 

 

The formation of ambiguous ethos continues in the chorus as Toto uses bomphiologia, an exaggerating device “done in a self-aggrandizing manner (Silva Rhetoricae).The interesting parallel given between the songwriter and god is the most problematic in the artifact. The second line continues “I bless the rains down in Africa”, drawing on holy imagery to extend Toto’s argument (“Africa”). The phrase, “down in Africa”, acts to separate Toto’s audience from the people of Africa, distancing the subject geographically vaguely across the equator (“Africa”). This allows for criticism of the then political climate in Africa. Using this invented aforementioned distance, Toto simultaneously heightens their power as white men to paint themselves in the best intentions. The rhetorical technique allows for pompous speech, allowing for the speaker to brag about their position in terms of the dominant ideology. This technique solidifies the idea of paternalism because it is popularly read as an act of selflessness, though it undermines any morally upright results. Paternalism occurs when a relatively wealthy nation limits the progress of a nation seen as subordinate in the supposed best interest of the latter (Baker). Because Toto accentuates the differences between the dominant white and the consequentially subordinate African subject in terms of their self-sufficiency, this rhetorical device operates to validate the institution of paternalism.

            The chorus of Toto’s “Africa” concludes with the vague line “gonna take some time to do the things we never have”, instilling intimation, yet another rhetorical device. By “hinting at something but not stating it explicitly” the audience is encouraged to read a deeper meaning into the text that wasn’t originally intended by the rhetor (Silva Rhetoricae). The argument derived from the implied message assumedly does work for the rhetor. This statement is a given, it will take time to do the things never done before; however, the collective ‘we’ implies again that the audience of white Americans will be taking the time to help out the dependent Africans Toto created in their song.

 

            Toto intended to raise awareness for those suffering in Africa. However, this is ambiguously translated into their song and music video for “Africa”, providing problematic discourses pertaining to race. The rhetorical devices utilized in the textual lyrics of the song act to provide polysemy, ruining the successful reception of Toto’s “Africa” that would have echoed the purpose. Reinforcing old notions of a helpless third world resulting in the placement of blame on the people of Africa, mistaken geography used to emphasize the certainty of their intentions but resulting in faltering credibility, and the rhetorical use of bomphiologia all provide the foundation for reading an explicit paternalist ideology suggested in the music video.

 

Paternalism:

            Ideologies are contingent on their ordained power. Reinforcing hegemony, Toto’s “Africa”, on its surface, promotes humanitarianism in order to provide aid to a suffering continent and peoples. However, this is undermined by the ideology of paternalism in the artifact, as there is a fine line between the humanitarianism and paternalism depending on the patron and nature of the efforts. Paternalism, as an ideology, reinforces hegemony in an explicit fashion, prescribing the subordinate’s dependency on the country subjectively deemed more responsible.

The music video aids in legitimating the argument of paternalism in its provided juxtaposition between the civilized and uncivilized. The woman, seen dressed in affluent clothing reading a book provides a stark contrast with the bare foot of the tribesman (1:51-1:53). Having assumed the position of the token in the music video, the woman emphasizes the differences between the two people, results of education and wealth. This aforementioned tribesman is seen taking aim at the two in the study (2:47) Throwing the arrow, the man causes symbolic consequences in the music video, forcibly suggesting to a Western audience the need to intervene (3:12-4:16). First, the spear causes the bookcase to knock a pile of books over (3:14), perhaps symbolizing a Western belief that literacy and education is useless to the people and culture of Africa. The books then cause a kerosene lantern to fall over, catching fire to its surroundings (3:16), in a way instilling the idea with American audiences that the African continent lives primitively, without electricity or doors.  This is a damaging belief in that it again reaffirms the paternalistic instincts of the West, in turn, making it a pervasive ideology seen earlier in the lyric featuring the “old man” with his ancient knowledge. These demonstrations of chaos and destruction convey to a Western audience the need for humanitarian efforts. However, the symbology used to make this point is saturated with arguments derived from paternalistic beliefs. The glasses, presumably of the woman in the music video, are seen crushed in the mud (3:23). This could be a metaphor for the violence that occurred in the continent regardless of education and monetary stability. The final scene is a book titled Africa on fire as a result of the arrow’s chain reaction (3:47-3:50), symbolizing the idea that the people of Africa are destroying their homeland. Intervening in politics and economy due to the belief that the people of Africa are unable to find resolve for themselves demonstrates the use of legitimation in order to properly establish a hegemonic belief.

 

Ideologies pertaining to paternalism, whether unconscious or not, have very real consequences. Resulting in what some critics call “poverty tourism”, a recent application of the similar means of Toto’s legitimation, paternalism is employed in yet another context. Kennedy Odede, a Nairobi native, writes in an editorial to The New York Times titled Slumdog Tourism, “Slum tourism turns poverty into entertainment, something that can be momentarily experiences and then escaped from. […] Aside from the occasional comment, there is no dialogue established, no conversation begun” (Odede). Because Toto’s “Africa” failed to create any of the change it was created to provoke, the song becomes merely a perpetuation of what needs to be changed.

            While legitimation justifies the dominant ideology in that the belief system carries inherent righteousness, naturalization acts to validate the ideology by its being naturally derived without coercion and unnecessary force. It is of the good and responsible white man’s nature to know when to do the just thing. In the video, Paich is seen researching the continent. Seemingly discontent with his efforts in the face of the destruction caused by the visiting African’s arrow (4:09), Paich’s expression offers insight into the naturalized belief system of the West that Africa as a continent finds hardship in accepting help from developed countries despite continual attempts to provide relief efforts.

             

Conclusion:

            Paich admits that the difficulty in writing “Africa” was that it was “a white boy [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” (AudioFemme). Though the song went triple platinum, it did little to raise substantial awareness of the plight in Africa because the audience failed to recognize the explicit intent of the song. The paternalist ideology is born of this uncertainty, and it is made only more obvious through the failure of a receptive ethos. The intention of Toto’s character was lost through undeveloped arguments, such as old racist quips, uninformed activism, and exaggerated rhetorical devices, and the message behind their song was subsequently made ambiguous. It is the ambiguity created in the artifact that allows for damaging polysemic interpretations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

“‘Africa’ by Toto Lives on After 30 Years”. Nathan East. Rock Cellar Magazine. n.d. Web. Accessed 11 Dec 2014. <http://nathaneast.com/2013/02/01/africa-by-toto-lives-on-after-30-years/>

“Africa-Toto”. TotoVevo. YouTube. n.p., 22 May 2013. Web. Accessed 17 Oct. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTQbiNvZqaY>

“Apartheid”. Merriam-Webster: An Encyclopedia Britannica Company. 2013. Web. Accessed 17 Oct. 2013. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apartheid>

Baker, Andy and Jennifer Fitzgerald. “Racial Paternalism and Mass Support for Foreign Aid”. Princeton University Press. n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2013. <http://ncgg.princeton.edu/IPES/2011/papers/F150_rm3.pdf>

Blaine, Harden. “Ethiopia Faces Famine Again, Requests Massive Food Relief”. The Washington Post. 14 Sept. 1987. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013.

Burton, Gideon. “bomphiologia”. Silva Rhetoricae. Brigham Young University. <rhetoric.byu.edu>

Flans, Robyn. “Classic Tracks: Toto’s ‘Africa’”. Mix: Professional Audio and Music Production. n.p., 15 Aug. 2005. Web. 7 Oct. 2013 <http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_totos_africa/>

 “Flashback Friday: Africa”. AudioFemme. n.p., 8 Nov. 2013. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.audiofemme.com/flash-back-friday-africa/>

Glave, Judie. “USA for Africa readies for first mercy mission”. The Gainesville Sun. 17 May 1985. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. <http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0dcTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4gYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6703,698756&dq=we-are-the-world>

Odede, Kennedy. “Slumdog Tourism”. The New York Times. Opinion Editorial. 9 Aug 2010. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/opinion/10odede.html>

“Olympus. Merriam-Webster. An Encyclopedia Britannica Company. 2013. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/olympus?show=0&t=1386888668>

Rosaldo, Renato. “Imperialist Nostalgia”. Memory and Counter-Memory. Spec. issue of Representations (1989): 107-122. Web. Accessed 21 Oct. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2928525?uid=3739960&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102814053613>

“Silver and Gold by U2”. Songfacts. n.p., n.d. Web. Accessed 17 Oct. 2013. <http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=924>

“Sun City”. Songfacts. n.p., n.d. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=217>

Toto. “Africa”. Toto IV. Columbia, 1982. CD.

“Toto Songs”. US & UK Hits Charts. MuscVF.com. Howard Drake. 2009. Web. Accessed 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.musicvf.com/Toto.art>

U2. “Silver and Gold”. Rattle and Hum. Island, 1988. CD.

USA for Africa. “We Are the World”. We Are the World. Columbia, 1985. CD.