Open AccessBlessing the Rains: Fieldwork Meditations on ‘Africa’ by Toto
Author(s) -
Julie A. Jenkins
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
suomen antropologi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.141
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1799-8972
pISSN - 0355-3930
DOI - 10.30676/jfas.v43i2.77705
Subject(s) - lyrics , history , melody , literature , ambivalence , blessing , art , disconnection , plague (disease) , psychology , ancient history , archaeology , psychoanalysis , musical , political science , law
As an anthropologist who works in West Africa, I have ambivalent feelings towards the 1982 song ‘Africa’ by Toto. It is a song that lyrically does not make sense, although powerfully draws its audience into a romanticized mental imagery of the continent with “drums echoing,” “wild dogs crying,” and “old men” with “long forgotten words or ancient melodies.” Despite my annoyance at and critique of the lyrics and music video, I often found myself humming the lyrics “I bless the rains down in Africa” during my fifteen months fieldwork in the small town in south-eastern Ghana. This paper explores how the song came to signify for me a plea for disconnection from the relations I had worked to develop and a celebration when that disconnection was momentarily achieved during the downpours in the rainy seasons. Fieldwork, participant observation, culture shock, West Africa