Toto's Africa will play 'for eternity' in Africa because memes and solar power


Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf is using solar energy and speaker stacks to create a 24/7 loop of Africa forever.

The music world loves flogging a dead meme until its very last legs, and no different is their relationship with Toto's Africa. In a post-Daryl Braithwaite's Horses world, Africa has become the song of the past few years and it's triggered somewhat of a second wind for the legendary LA rockers - they've been covered by Weezer (and then covered Weezer back again, because it's the polite thing to do), recently did a victory lap around Australia doing late-afternoon sets at Falls Festival (in the same slot as Braithwaite the year prior, mind you), and the royalties they must be getting through increased streaming and the song being rinsed at every event for the last 18 months must be through the roof. It's a real good time and the song still bangs, even 36 years post-release, so we're not too mad about the song becoming a meme - but jesus, people are absolutely flogging it for what it's worth.

We're not talking the guy who's currently hitting virality by covering the song with some sweet potatoes and squash, but instead, Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf, who has come up with the genius idea of using solar energy to create a 24/7, never-ending loop of the song in Africa - the Namibian desert, to be exact. The proposed art installation, Toto Forever, has six speakers connected to an mp3 player with only one song - Africa - playing on repeat the whole time, all powered by solar batteries which, being in the middle of the African desert, basically ensures the installation should run as long as there's a sun in the sky. "The song is put on loop and the installation runs on solar batteries to keep Toto going for all eternity," Siedentopf says on the project, which the artist mentions was created to pay tribute to "the most popular song of the last four decades."

The exact location of the installation has not been released aside that it's somewhere in the 2000-odd kilometre stretch of Coastal Namibian Desert (“finding it might take some time," he says), but as long as the meme stays relevant and DJs stay uninspired, we're sure it'll basically be on repeat forever in your local club/pub/bar as well.

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