10. 10 Songs about Africa

Africa - Toto
Rock the Kasbah - The Clash
Sunset Coming On - Damon Albarn
Marrakesh Express - Crosby, Stills and Nash
Mozambique - Bob Dylan
Free Nelson Mandela - The Specials
Afrika Shox - Leftfield
Liberian Girl - Michael Jackson
Redemption Song - Bob Marley
Do they know it's Christmas - Band Aid

Of course, these are all songs about Africa from an outsider's perspective - none of your Fela Kutis and Amadou and Mariams from me. This 10 is bookended by a couple of songs of almost irredeemable naffness, but I knew I had to include them, sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus over the Serengeti.
Talking of terrible verse, I have loads of words about Africa funnily enough, probably because of trying to tap into the very few parts of my memory which aren't fairly monochrome.
These are quite bland words, but I like them because they do actually remind me of some of the sheer weirdnesses of some of the time when I was in Kenya

Dogs are sleeping in the valley
'neath the bitter burning forest
Some they say the rains are coming
with the changing of the council
There's a funeral on the west slope
for the man who guards the schoolyard
He looked like Morgan Freeman -
couldn't speak a word of English
There's wailing 'cross the hillside
which sounds like a rehearsal
grief always seemes so cliched
till the moment that it strikes you
Snakes are crawling from the forest
Dessperate and endangered
Boys are sleeping with their knives out
trying hard to feel like grown men
Teeth are grinding in the bedrooms
of the blinkered unbeliever
Fire will bring the rain upon us
with the changing of the spirits
The preacher's voice gets louder -
the good book takes a beating
Drowning out the ululating
at this raging god of hatred
Blessed fresh water's getting scarcer
Fingernails are getting dirtier
The cane becomes less fruitful
Just a minor inhibition
Lightning streaks across the valley
and I do believe in nothing
but dancing in the rainstorm
I watch the fire extinguished.