DROPPING DUH SEED ALL BOUT

The following is an excerpt from the Nation newspaper a few Mondays back discussing the serious subject of how easily young girls [teenagers mostly] fall for low-class men and the almost certain un-supported pregnancy that incurs. [written in bajan dialect]

I come along hearing the old people say how the bible say that in the last days children should have children and other things that we seeing as clear as day nowadays.

The truth is, when I use tuh hear dem talking dese things, I never used to pay it nuh mind, really; but in recent times I have had tuh sit up and take note of it - wha' it really happening in trute.
Look, a day doan go by wid-out seeing a hard-side li'l girl who ain't dream tuh loss she mudda feautres yet, walking down de road wid a big able belly sticking out in front o' she, looking like a lizard dat swallow an ackee seed.
I wonder how the boy or man who might be responsible for this situation does feel, knowing that that this is a li'l young girl who relly ain't know one thing bout life - or as the old people say, who ain't see a star pitch yet. I does wonder if the li'l girls demselves understan wha dem getting demselves into.
I does look at them, and ask myself how they see their future now, dat they have to stop going tuh school and shut down their education [temporary in some cases] tuh become a mother at such a early age.
Lord, I ain't teling ya nuh lie, I does really have tuh look at dem and wonder if de body who get them in this way is somebody who gine make sure dat duh put things in place fuh the baby when it comes. But I really and truly cahn understan these li'l girls though. You would believe dat because they come along poor and watch their own mothers struggling tuh put a li'l bittle fuh dem and duh brothers and sisters, they would keep duh li'l tails quiet.
And that they would make a sensible decision tuh stay away from getting duhselves involved wid anybody until duh get a few certificates in duh hand, so they could find a job and help put something pon the table fuh the younger ones when the week come. It never ceases tuh amaze me, when I see these li'l girls, sometimes in duh school clothes, walkin the road and laughing up in the face o' these knot-up head, rusty looking, cigarette smoking men wid duh pants all the way below duh botsies, boots that look too big fuh duh foot and two hard foot look like burn cane in a three-quarter jeans. I really cahn understand it - how dese young fellows see demselves.,
Or yuh would see big hard back men eyeing up and making all sorts of kinds of igrunt comments bout a li'l girl when she pass by, and yuh does have to ask ya'self wha really going on in some o' these men's heads. Another thing dat does get me is dat some o' dese same young girls would know dat these boys are men doan drive a stroke when the day come. They might even know dat these men might have another young girl like duh self dealing wid, or even live wid a woman and children in a house; yet duh would still leh these kinda men come along and jump on pon dem and blight up duh young lives.
But I does feel fuh the poor li'l wuns coming into a world like this, with a mother who ain't know B from bull, and a father who might got more than one woman, and cahn gi' she a pack of pampers or a tin o' baby powder. I does really wonder how he does feel though, just dropping children 'bout the place like a village ram.
I doan know, but people who call duhselves men like duh aint got nuh kinda regard fuh who dem breed up. It looks sometimes like these men doan really care about the fact that this is their offspring dat dem dropping bout all bout de place so.

Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.