Released:1988.
Recorded: Blue Wave Studios, Saint Philip, Barbados.
Genre: reggae-pop.
Songwriter: Eddy Grant.
Producer: Eddy Grant.

The song was banned by the South African government when it was released, but it was widely played in South Africa. This song became the anthem of the anti-apartheid movement. 

 It reached number seven on the UK Singles chart, becoming Grant's first top 10 hit for more than five years.

Nowadays, Eddy Grant is a hero in his country, Guyana.

He never has had another hit like Gimme Hope Jo'anna. 

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

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

Refrain
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

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

This policy governed relations between the white minority and the nonwhite majority of South Africa during the 20th century. It separated people by race, and it was very oppressive to blacks. 

Nelson Mandela: He was the leader of the fight against the apartheid. He was considered a terrorist, and he spent 27 years in a prison cell.

The legislation supporting apartheid was repealed in the early 1990s, and a new constitution was adopted in 1993. 

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa.