209. Rock Goes The Gospel - Toto "Africa"

This song tells the story of a man who comes to Africa and must make a decision about the girl who comes to see him. He is enamored with the country, but must leave if he is going to be with her. Toto keyboard player David Paich wrote the song, and explained in the liner notes of Toto's Best Ballads compilation: "At the beginning of the '80s I watched a late night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of the people in Africa. It both moved and appalled me and the pictures just wouldn't leave my head. I tried to imagine how I'd feel about if I was there and what I'd do." Paich had never been to Africa when he wrote the song. With introspective lyrics like, "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," we wondered if this song involved a bit of personal reflection. Turned out, it did. In our interview with David Paich, he explained: "There's a little metaphor involved here, because I was at the age where I was so immersed in my work, 24/7, that at times I felt like I was becoming just a victim of my work. There was a little bit of autobiographical information in there: being consumed by my work, not having time to go out and pursue getting married and raising a family and doing all the things that other people do that were my age at the time." In an article in Time magazine, one of the group members said they were looking for a song just to close off the album and did not think "Africa" would do as well as it did. They also mentioned that if you listen close enough during the lyrics "catch some waves," some group members were singing "catch some rays." Toto IV won a Grammy for Album of the Year, but voters didn't nominate "Africa" for either Record of the Year or Song of the Year; they preferred "Rosanna," which was nominated in both categories and won for Record of the Year.

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"

[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

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

[Chorus]

[Instrumental break]

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 [5x]
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had.

The Toto song "Africa" has a line in the lyrics "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," We are all confronted time to time with who we really are. It can be slow realisation or it can come to us like a ton of bricks falling on our heads. this realisation can bring each of us low and can set us on a spiral - downwards. Paul in this morning's devotial passage is confronted with the man he is. He can see no way out. But in the end he come to another realisation of what Jesus has done for him.

In her book, Joni, Joni Ericson Toda describes her first distressing realisation of the grim reality of her paralysis. Joni was only 15 when she was permanently paralysed from the neck down as the result of a diving accident. She was rushed to the hospital for extensive tests and x-rays to determine the extent of her injury. As she lay unclothed on a hospital cart, the sheet covering her slipped to the side leaving her partially exposed. In her modesty, Joni desperately wanted to cover herself, a small task easily and quickly accomplished before her accident. But now, as much as she wanted to make her arms and hands move, they simply would not respond. Joni knew in her mind exactly what she wanted to do, but her body was totally unresponsive. You and I can only taste of Joni’s struggle in small portions. My body generally does what I ask it to do nowadays, although, it does it slower and not nearly as well. It is threatening that some day it might not even respond to my requests at all.

Paul describes in the Book of Romans a much deeper frustration—that our sinful flesh refuses to respond to the requirements of God’s Law. Those things which we as despise we find ourselves doing. Those things which we as desire we fail to accomplish. No matter how much we may wish to serve God in our minds, we find ourselves sinning in our bodies. As Paul describes his frustration in Romans 7, with his mind he desires to serve God. He agrees with the Law of God and rejoices in it. He wants to do what is right, but his body will not respond. He watches, almost as a third party, as sin sends a signal to his body, and as his body responds, “What would you like to do?” Paul finds, as we do, that while our fleshly bodies refuse to obey God and do that which we desire and which delights God, they quickly and eagerly respond to the impulses and desires aroused by sin.

Joni’s difficulty only partially describes the analogy of Romans 7, for it is one thing to have our body not do what we tell it to and quite another to realise that our body is very obedient to something else. That is the frustration of Paul in Romans 7. Everyone who reads Romans 7:14-25 should immediately identify with Paul’s expression of frustration and agony due to the weakness of his fleshly body: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). We are confronted with a dilemma as we try to live righteously. If there were no answer for this question, we would hardly dare to press on. But there is an answer! Thanks be to God, there is a solution!

Some of our most tender nerves are touched by Paul’s teaching in verses 14-25. For the truths taught here could be taken as the most depressing and hopeless realities of our lives. But Paul does not dwell on the weakness of our flesh in order to discourage us. Rather, Paul exposes the weakness of our flesh as the root problem which prevents us from living the kind of lives God requires and which we, as desire in our innermost being. Paul exposes the weakness of our flesh to prepare us for God’s provision for godly living, the solution found in Romans 8. Those of us willing to honestly identify with the agony of Romans 7 will be ready for the ecstasy of God’s gracious provision for living righteously in Romans 8. If Romans 7 takes us to an all time low, Romans 8 takes us to a refreshing high. Let us welcome these words of encouragement as a revelation from God, for these verses are God’s good news for our hearts.

Just like in Toto's song "Africa" there is a paralisis "frightened of this thing that I've become" but in the song as we have seen  in the scripture there is a hope and another desire at work. "I seek to cure what's deep inside" Thank God that faith and trust in Jesus Christ can be the cure for the soul and can bring us into a freedom that is promised by God.