Johnny Clegg explained the inspiration for the song in a live concert, saying "When we wrote this song, the oldest human bones in the world had just been discovered at Olduvai Gorge, in Africa. So this is a song about how everyone can claim to be African ... if they want to, that is."

Olduvai: Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where significant human remains were discovered by archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey and subsequent researchers.

Phelamanga: a place-name invented by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu; in Zulu, the word means something like 'no more lies', so it represents an idealized destination, somewhere that we as individuals and as a species may one day hope to arrive.

"Scatterlings of Africa" was written by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu.