This is one of my book loot bought from Book Fair Australia. I wasn’t going to buy it, but Gbogbo taunted and tempted me with her journalistic background and I couldn’t let it go. I’ve discovered journalists write really good books. I did fact check a journalist once, no point doing it again, he was right.
Hip Hop & Hymns is the story of Gbogbo’s life. It starts in the usual way after a prologue, with the story of her parents. I made the mistake of opening up the book just now so I could check the beginning. I managed to close it only having reread three or four pages. Gbogbo was born in Ghana, her mother being a descendant of the royal family. Her father was the son of a miller, but he lived with his grandparents. It was fascinating to read somewhat about Ghana and to see it through her eyes.
The family moved to NSW at a young age, to a place called Muswellbrook. It’s small and they were the only people of colour in the entire town. With her dark skin and very curly hair Gbogbo really stood out.
She fell in love with the sounds and music of both Hip Hop and Hymns, hence the name of the book. While studying in Bathurst, Gbogbo and her friend, Candace, put together the first Hip Hop and R’n’B night. It was a great success and she was able to use that experience in her resumé to make herself look good enough to be hired.
A lot of people know I don’t like romance. It turns out that it depends on the romance. This book was full of it, but I had no trouble with it. Why? I’ve no idea. I’m still not going to buy books for the romance. I just know that this one was fine. I did want to know more of Gbogbo’s other life. She didn’t have it easy. She experienced racism in many ways. But it was lovely to see her land in America and see more people of her colour.
There is one line that we keep being fed about having diversity in books/TV/movies or, in fact, anywhere. Young people need to see people who look like them at work in order for them to understand that this particular job is an opportunity also open to them. Gbogbo mentioned how she’d seen Trisha Goddard on TV and realised she could also be a journalist. Trisha Goddard is fantastic, I’ve seen her on the news many times, it was lovely to see her listed in this book.
There were so many times that I sat there reading parts of the book and getting the feeling of sheer pleasure. Only one I’ll point out is when the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation came looking for media students to help with the 2000 Olympic Games. Gbogbo put her hand up very firmly and was selected as a Trainee Broadcast Liaison Officer. So much pleasure seeing this one instance. And she got to meet her childhood hero, Carl Lewis!
Along with the good moments, there were some dreadful moments. Gbogbo is completely open about her food issues and her drink issues. She doesn’t sugar-coat any of it. But from what I see she’s done a bang up job of making herself good and getting into a good career.
When she’s asked if Australia is racist she doesn’t pull any punches.
‘When you’ve got a country built on stealing land, raping, murdering and pillaging the people who lived there first, taking their children away and stripping them of basic human rights to the point where their descendants are still having to deal with intergenerational trauma and marginalisation – I don’t know, what do you think? I certainly experience racism in Australia, but I know my Indigenous brothers and sisters have had it much worse.’
The Australian lady who’d asked the question slunk away with a bright red face. It’s a fabulous paragraph.
So many, many other things I could talk about. I haven’t even touched on any of the things I made note of while reading. I should have mentioned something about her faith and how it’s helped her along the way. I could have pulled stuff out every few pages. As I expected, it’s nicely written. I’m looking forward to more from Gbogbo. Next time I’d like to read more about Ghana, it’s a place I’ve heard so little about. I did look it up on the map. It’s something I do with many of the books I read where I don’t know the country. There are far too many countries in that region that I know nothing about. At least I now know a tiny bit about Ghana.