Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Somewhere In Afrika

When I first heard their version of "The Runner" ("Runner") I was enthralled. I can't tell you, (but I am going to) how many times I picked this album up and put it back. I loved the song, but I wasn't sold on getting an entire album by Manfred Mann.

So I passed.

Then time passed.

A lot of time ... decades.

A while ago I was wandering around a flea market and there were several vendors selling assorted records and charging a small ransom for really questionable stuff. I try not to be that guy but I think I may have blurted out "You have got to be kidding" more than once when asking "How much?"

Then I stumbled upon a rather chill looking dude who had an old milk crate full of records. I flipped through and there were a couple of things that caught my eye, but it was Somewhere in Afrika that I pulled out. It was still in the shrinkwrap and looked pristine.

He looked up and caught my eye.

I asked, "How much?"

He told me.

I pulled out my cash and walked out with my treasure under my arm.

Score.

Somewhere in Afrika is an odd album, not that it's odd ... just that trying to figure out which version of the record is canon is tricky. I suppose it doesn't matter to those of us on this side of the pond. The album was released in Europe back in '82, but it wasn't until the fall of 1983 that it came out in North America.

It wasn't until "The Runner" came out before the Los Angeles Olympics in '84 that I first became aware of it at all. The album not so much, the song very much.

"The Runner" was actually tacked on to the release here. Even now if you try and stream Somewhere in Afrika you'll hear a very different album and "The Runner," the reason I wanted the album in the first place, is nowhere to be heard.

So, what is canonical?

This.

What I am playing is definitive, but only when I can play the record.

What struck me was the interplay between Mann's African influences and his pop sensitivities. This was years before Paul Simon released Graceland, and while one of those albums is well known, Somewhere in Afrika is lucky to be a musical footnote.

This got me curious so I started looking for articles about the album and whether this tenuous connection was written about by others more smarter than me.

The best one I found was on Loudersound.com written by Malcolm Dome and published Feb. 24, 2026, where he discussed this with Mister Mann. It's not a long read but worth your time. When asked about it he simply states, "Paul Simon did it better."

He then goes on:

“In the end I messed up this so-called concept album. It has a cover of Bob Marley’s "Redemption Song" in the middle of the second side, which was supposed to be all about South Africa. I do ask myself why I did it. It’s the usual thing with me – take a good idea and dilute it. So if anyone says Somewhere In Afrika deserves more respect, I just tell them it doesn’t, because it’s not good enough.”

One gets the sense reading the article that this is not a simple case of Mister Mann trying to fish for compliments, or have someone else argue for recognition for his work. He seems to genuinely have the ability to look critically at his own work, even if in my opinion he's wrong.

He also acknowledges the other elephant in the room: not writing their own songs.

Like Three Dog Night, Manfred Mann's Earth Band knew how to interpret and make a song their own. One only has to hear their arrangements and interpretations of Sting's (The Police) "Demolition Man," "Runner" (Ian Thomas - but on the record and liner notes it's attributed to his publishing company Mark Cain), and "Eyes of Nostradamus," which is a completely reworked and rewritten version of "Nostradamus" and is still attributed to Al Stewart.

Ah, publishing.

Heck there's even a Bob Marley cover, "Redemption Song (No Kwazulu)," that features a killer guitar solo by Trevor Rabin.

This is the sequencing of the North American release, and honestly this just feels right. I suppose it's the devil you know, but when I stream this it sort of throws me off. I suppose this is overkill, but I've had a couple of cups of coffee and am quite content to pound away on the keyboard.

Side One

• Demolition Man
• Runner
• Rebel
• Eyes Of Nostradamus
• Third World Service
• Somewhere In Afrika

Side Two

• Tribal Statistics
• Lalela
• Redemption Song (No Kwazulu)
• Africa Suite
• A) Brothers And Sisters Of Africa
• B) To Bantustan?
• C) Koze Kobenini? (How Long Must We Wait?)
• D) Brothers And Sisters Of Azania

Graceland was certainly more popular, and took a different approach, but I'm not sure Somewhere in Afrika needs to be thrown under the bus.

What gets lost is Manfred Mann was South African, and was barred from returning to his home country because of his views on Apartheid. This was personal. 

Manfred Mann seems to be quite dismissive of his abilities as a songwriter, but his own arrangements and musical interpolations say otherwise. I was as surprised as anyone when I came to the realization that the second side, particularly "Africa Suite," was so good. Written by Manfred Mann, it incorporated traditional rhythms and progressive elements in a way I wasn't expecting.

The song choices and the arrangements share a thematic thread are woven together into a broader story. Maybe lyrically he wasn't quite able to connect all the dots and convey what he wanted to say, hence his self-assessment that he went after the sound more than the song.  Regardless, after so many decades it's a moot point.

Like The Alan Parsons Project, Manfred Mann employed numerous vocalists. Chris Thompson and Steve Waller are excellent singers and handled the majority of the vocals. Some of the African vocals were recorded "Somewhere in Africa" in June of '82 on a mobile recorder, while other sequences were recorded in London.

Trevor Rabin, who was about to become very well known as a member of Yes with 90125, also played the guitar solo on "Runner." He's not in the credits, but his tone and style are rather unique.

Is there an argument to be made that Somewhere in Afrika deserves more respect than it gets?Absolutely.

I bought this to get one song, and I got so much more.