The blame game: Pregnant with men

Barolong Seboni | Friday July 18, 2014 13:20

They believe that every group in society should have its fair share of the blame. After all there is enough blame to go around for everyone.

Priest: We the men of the cloth here gathered believe in the spirit of blameworthiness. If the blame fits, let them have it!

After all in the bible, in the very first book of Genesis, Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent. Finally, God apportions the blame equally amongst all present and punishes each accordingly.

Chair: Thank you, Moruti. And the Chiefs, what do you have to say?

Chief: Mr. Chairman, we also believe that where there is an action then there is a doer. So therefore the action of a person is the reporter of the doer, so yes let there be blame and let the blame be put on the doer.

Chair: Er…. I’m not quite sure I follow your point a hundred percent, so I will once again put the question to the meeting by saying that this thing of girls and young women getting pregnant without men is not good in our society…..

Priest: No sir, I disagree. I don’t think they are pregnant without men. I think they are pregnant with men….

Chief: That’s absurd! How can they be pregnant with men? The proper English is to say that they are pregnant instead of men.

Priest: Ijojo! That’s even worse!

Chair: Gentlemen, I think we all get the meat of what I am trying to say. My point really is that these young women get pregnant even before they get married to men.

Priest: Now it is clear as daylight.

Chair: So in that case where do we point the blame?

Chief: We must blame the men for not marrying them.

Priest: Yes but some of these men who put the pregnancy in them are married.

Chief: Oo! Then there is no problem if they are married. Akere ra re they should be married?

PRIEST: They are married to their wives and not to the girls, so there is a big problem.

Chief:  Well then let’s blame the wives for marrying men who go out of the marital bed to make the young girls pregnant!

Priest: Somehow that doesn’t sound very fair. I think we should put the blame at the very doorstep of where it belongs.

Chair: Yes, yes, I agree very well with that principle. We should lay the blame at the source.

Chief: It sounds fair to me too. Blame the source. The question that we must ask is gore “what is the source of pregnancy and where is it?”

Chair: Can we then attempt to answer that question gentlemen?

Chief: That’s easy enough. The source of pregnancy is found in the woman.

Priest: I disagree entirely. The source of pregnancy lies with the man. It is the man who has all the resources to make the woman pregnant.

Chief: We must tread very carefully here Moruti  because that would mean that the blame goes to all men. And we know as men that not all men are well-resourced.

Chair: Then let’s blame the resources. We cannot leave them out freely these resources.

Priest: I agree that we should blame the resources from the source as they are ultimately responsible for the pregnancy…..

Chief: But this is really the chicken and egg story of what came first….

Priest: No, no, not chicken! It’s a resource and egg story where the resources of the man come and interfere with the innocent egg of the innocent young woman….

Chief: Interfere?

Priest: Yes, interfere!

Chief: Interfere is a strong word.

Priest: Well the resources of the man are strong. They are financial, material and masculine, and mobile….

Chair: And they can swim…!

Priest: Yes, they can swim in the form of dinnetlane….er….gatweng kana….

Chief: Tadpoles.

Priest: I want to say er…. tadpoles without meaning that they are tadpoles but I just can’t say the word…

Chair: Tadpoles will do for now. We all know what you mean, we are all men. So it seems the majority of the people here agree that we cannot blame the victim, neither can we blame the man, but also that in the spirit of blameworthiness something should be held responsible and blamed.

Secretary: You are quite right Mr. Chairman, I have recorded it exactly as you put it.

Priest: We have no problem with that. Blaming and scapegoating are at the heart of the Christian faith.

That is why and how Christ died; he was blamed for all sorts of things.

Chief: Le rona magosi hela jalo!

Chair: So it is agreed that we blame the resources at the source. What then is the punishment so that we should have fewer pregnancies among the young people of Botswana?

Chief: It’s simple. Cut off the lifeline!

Chair: What? I don’t understand.

Chief: It is a policy that has a precedent that works. Cut off the resources at the source into the reserve…. I mean reservoir….. I mean both….

Priest: He means the source of life.