Time for a Twitter chat over tea and biscuits:
Alex Deane: This morning BBC Radio 4 broadcast a talking head explaining that the modern resurgence of the Toto song “Africa” is due in part to it harkening to a time of a happier future pre-Brexit. Seemingly nobody involved in the entire editing and curating process between that asinine claim being said and being aired thought “oh, let’s just hang on a second.” No alternative view to this was sought or offered. When the persistent, palpable (perhaps unconscious) bias at the BBC is finally addressed, defenders of the institution (who are, one can’t help but note, often employed by it) will still claim not to recognise the problem for a moment. But it’s pretty obvious.
Melindi Scott: Ooo. Will they do Unskinny Bop by Poison tomorrow?
Caroline Farrow: An entire programme was dedicated to the impact of Toto’s Africa on people’s lives. It was quite interesting but it made me laugh that the ‘80s was “a time of innocence before Brexit and Trump”...
Melindi Scott: They don't learn.
Rebecca Bland: Hilarious. I did, unwisely, try to listen to R4 for about five minutes this morning, but tired of the haranguing and school marmish tone very quickly. Click and off! I was a lifelong and constant listener until about three years ago, but life is so much nicer without it.
Caroline Farrow: I know, great that though the programme was, that claim was cringeworthy.
The programme was indeed pretty good. The woman making the 'Brexit and Trump' claim was, as you might have guessed, an academic.
The lyrics of "Africa" with annotations by Monkey Brains, Emeritus Professor of Intersectional Narratives at the University of Leftborough and Director of the Observatory for Contemporary Cultural Trends:
ReplyDelete"I hear the drums echoing tonight"
[Clear example of cultural appropriation. Drums are an exclusively African instrument and should not be referred to by representatives of oppressor races.]
"But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation"
[Objectification of female person. Who is the man to determine what she can and cannot here?]
"She's coming in, 12:30 flight"
[Careless attitude to carbon emissions typical of a colonial/capitalist/neo-imperialist mindset.]
"The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation"
[Bourgeois-religio understanding of salvation as personal journey, a clear example of false consciousness lacking the understanding afforded by Marxist theory.]
"I stopped an old man along the way"
[Ageist referencing, as though all old people are time-rich, so can be waylaid and made to converse. Many old people will be engaged in Marxist theorising and have no time for trivial interruptions by petit-bourgeois troubador-romanticists.]
"Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies"
[Again, a romanticisation of the past completely devoid of analysis using the scientific principles of dialectic materialism.]
"He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you" "
[Again objectification. Who does the "It" refer to? Clearly the woman coming in on the flight. Genderisation, incorporating degenderising, a common trait of bourgeois gender discourse.]
"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do"
[Now an aggressively masculinist discourse is put in place in the chorus, in hegemonic fashion, clearly designed to intimidate the woman. A justification of stalking and harrassment.]
"I bless the rains down in Africa"
[Again, cultural appropriation. Africa is a large continent with numerous complex weather systems, which the indigenous people understand. The bourgeois reductionism of "rains" belies an inherently colonialist mindset.]
"Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)"
[Things = bourgeois objectification of human-interactive processes with high utility in a capitalist economy.]
"The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company"
[Speciesism. Unless the narrator is trained in zooology with specialist knowledge of canine species, there is no way in which he could interpret the vocalisations of wild dogs.]
"I know that I must do what's right"
[Bourgeois concept of ethical rectitude disguising a ruthlessly rapacious tendency to exploit the working class.]
"As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti I seek to cure what's deep… "
[Naive bourgeois nature worship, an example of false consciousness designed to elevate the class above the proletariat. ]
Hope that clears it up!
It does. 🤣 Ban it!
Delete