According to David Paich, the song’s co-writer:

I think the hypnotic beat that Jeff Porcaro put together on it was just incredible. It’s just this tribal, primal hypnosis thing that goes on with this heartbeat that keeps counting. I think that when a song is story-driven, it’s interesting to follow along and listen to lyrics that have a little bit of thought put behind them. This was definitely story-driven. I think there’s kind of a few twists and turns, there’s a lot for people to interpret on their own. The harmonies and the vocal arrangement, and the way they come together in the chorus, [have] a lot to do with it. My favorite section is when I hear the marriage of words and notes and the harmonies, all blending together in the chorus — that’s what gets me. It’s just there’s something magical that happens when it all comes together.

Here is an article on the song’s enduring appeal.

According to Toto guitarist Steve Lukather in 2018:

No one is laughing harder than ME! And nobody appreciates it more than all of us at Toto. But, on the other hand, this one is really hard to do. Harder than it sounds. I am out with Ringo right now and we play ‘Africa’ live and I go for a lot harder edge guitar on the choruses in Weezer’s honor for making this a #1 hit again.

We [Toto] are still in STUN mode that these guys DID this and that it has blown UP. We are most grateful for them for continuing our sort-of re-birth in the USA, and this thing is wailing worldwide. Unreal. Thank you, Weezer! Our records are back on the charts and streaming huge and our name is mentioned overtime whenever they play it. So, win-win! Cross promotion at work!

[Weezer] tried to do the record close to ours, but with their stamp on it. Every musician has their own touch and style and our music is a little out of their wheelhouse. They ‘Weezered’ it so to speak, as they should! Still, I was really surprised they went for the solos and all that! Their version has a harder edge but retains the original vibe. Our stuff is much harder to see from the outside… Or, maybe quirky is the better word. It isn’t what it seems when you sit down and actually play it!

For the song’s live debut performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Weezer was joined by Steve Porcaro from Toto.

Although the story surrounding the song is made that the band covered the song due to the demand, Karl Koch, Weezer’s historian, wrote on a fan club email that drummer Patrick Wilson actually pushed forward the idea of covering the song.

Somewhere around February or March, Pat and then the rest of the band became aware of [the Twitter campaign] – but at that point it didn’t have much impact on them outside of amusement. However, Pat, who has always had one foot in classic rock and has always been an enthusiast of the extreme talent that many of the older bands possessed, did like the idea. It wasn’t until early spring when the band’s management got wind of the ‘Africa campaign’ and floated it as an idea to pursue, seeing the potential for good publicity. It was just an idea though, not a directive. However, once Pat knew that there was some interest, he pushed for it, knowing how he would want it to sound, and asking to be the producer.

From the Editor’s Notes on the Teal Album’s iTunes page, Rivers Cuomo and Brian Bell detailed the song:

Bell:

The first verse is longer than the second one, which is shorter than the third, and the verse is in a different key than the chorus. Things like that just get you thinking different ways. But it’s so smooth.

Cuomo:

The lyrics seem like he’s just rambling off the top of his head and they don’t really make sense but nobody seems to mind. I’ll spend weeks working on lyrics and it’s like, ‘Maybe people don’t really care.’