● Some girls are unable to identify the men who got them pregnant

The Chief of Kulpieniin the Nadowli Kaleo District of the Upper West Region, NaaKunzozolomaDanlaabu I has said that funeral jams popularly known as “dance” was the cause of teenage pregnancies and promiscuity among young people in the area.

He explained that the jams mostly took place funerals in the various communities where huge speakers were mounted to amplify songs played by disc jockeys from the evening of the last day of the funeral after the mourners had left, till mid night or dawn of the next day.

He said many of the teenagers moved from one community to the other to attend such events where they danced their hearts out, mingled with the opposite sex and indulged in excessive drinking of alcohol led to sexual immorality and its concomitant pregnancies.

The chief stated this during a meeting on Sexual and Gender-based Violence at Kpaala community in the Kulpieni Electoral Area by the Department of Gender with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

NaaDanlaabu I who was worried about the issue said there was the need to ban those jams in the area but that would need the consensus of all chiefs in the communities to ensure that it was bound in all areas to prevent the young from moving from one area to the other in search of where the dance was taking place.

“During the main funerals, we hardly see young people around but when it is time for the dance, you see them everywhere around; they even bring new people from other areas on board”, he said.

He stated that when the music began to play, the young ones behaved like they were plugged to a source of electrical power and danced till they were worn out whilst others drank liquor or smoked.

The Chief stated that some of the teenagers had information about where the next funeral dance was taking place and moved to that area even when it was out of their jurisdiction and said they prepared adequately for such events in order to meet new partners to hook up with.

“It is not surprising, therefore, that we have so many teenage pregnancy cases in the area and some of the girls are not even able to identify the men that got them pregnant; we need to push for sexual responsibility among our youth and if it means regulating such funeral activities, we will”, he stressed.

He called for a consensus building between himself and the other chiefs on how to adequately ban funeral jams in and around the traditional area to prevent the youth from patronising the event in areas where it had not been banned.

Adding her voice, the Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Ms Charity Batuurecharged the chiefs to engage in a meaningful dialogue on the issue to know how best they could deal with the menace.

She explained that it was necessary for the parents to protect their children, particularly females from ruffians who would impregnate them and abandon them or cause them to get married early when they were not ready.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Kpaala