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Eddy Grant - Gimme Hope Jo'anna

Eddy Grant - Gimme Hope Jo'anna Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: File Under Rock
Released: 1988

Gimme Hope Jo'anna Lyrics

Well Jo'anna she runs a country
She runs in Durban and the Transvaal
She makes a few of her people happy, oh
She don't care about the rest at all
She's got a system they call apartheid
It keeps a brother in a subjection
But maybe pressure can make Jo'anna see
How everybody could a live as one

[Chorus:]
Gimme hope, Jo'anna
Hope, Jo'anna
Gimme hope, Jo'anna
'Fore the morning come
Gimme hope, Jo'anna
Hope, Jo'anna
Hope before the morning come

I hear she make all the golden money
To buy new weapons, any shape of guns
While every mother in black Soweto fears
The killing of another son
Sneakin' across all the neighbors' borders
Now and again having little fun
She doesn't care if the fun and games she play
Is dang'rous to ev'ryone

[Chorus:]

She's got supporters in high up places
Who turn their heads to the city sun
Jo'anna give them the fancy money
Oh to tempt anyone who'd come
She even knows how to swing opinion
In every magazine and the journals
For every bad move that this Jo'anna makes
They got a good explanation

[Chorus:]
Even the preacher who works for Jesus
The Archbishop who's a peaceful man
Together say that the freedom fighters
Will overcome the very strong
I want to know if you're blind Jo'anna
If you want to hear the sound of drums
Can't you see that the tide is turning
Oh don't make me wait till the morning come

(Chorus)

Writer/s: Grant, Eddy / Klein, Bert / Brand, G
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Gimme Hope Jo'anna

Grant wrote this in honor of South African leader Nelson Mandela. Mandela fought against apartheid, a policy that separated people by race, and was very oppressive to blacks. Mandela was a political prisoner for over 20 years before apartheid was abandoned. After he was released, Mandela became president of South Africa. According to Grant, this became the anthem of the apartheid movement. (thanks, Crystal - Springfield, MO)

"Jo'anna" is a reference to Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa.

"The Archbishop who's a peaceful man" is a reference to Desmond Tutu, the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town who received the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against apartheid.