Wake up and smell de insults

Dec 02, 2025 Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists

(Kaieteur News) – Dem boys seh, dis 16-days of activism against gender-based violence should awaken us to another form of violence that occurs every morning in some households across Guyana.

Some children in Guyana are not as fortunate as their colleagues. Some of dem wake up to a torrent of abuse, “Yuh hear de alarm clock? Nah.“Yuh good-fuh-nuttin piece of … Yuh still sleepin’?” Before de child eye crust even clear, de verbal baptism start. “Get up and full de blasted water! Wad yuh lookin’ at? Yuh face like fowl backside! Move yuh lazy self!”

Den de chores start. Not de reasonable “clean yuh room” chores. Sweep de yard, wash de dishes from last night, mind de baby, polish dem shoes, pack de bag—all while de insults fall like May-June rain. “Yuh slower dan a donkey in glue! Yuh brains in yuh backside? Wad ah gon do wid yuh?”

Den, if de stars align wrong, de physical abuse does start. A lash for moving too slow. A cuff for daring to look sad. A pinch for existing. Dem boys seh de child breakfast is a slice of stress and a glass of fear. Den dey get herd off to de gate like cattle, heart heavy, head hot, spirit already bruise-up before first period.

Walk tru any street, any scheme, any village ‘fore school. Listen good. Behind dem pretty curtains and zinc fences, yuh gon hear de chorus. De shoutin’, de cussin’, de cryin’. Is the national anthem of pain.

Dem boys seh we quick to talk ‘bout bullies in de schoolyard—and rightfully so—but who checking de original perpetrators? De big people who wake up with a heart full of malice and take aim at de softest target in de house.

Is right we stand up against gender violence. But leh we nah forget de violence against dem who cyan’t fight back, who cyan’t protest, who only crime is being born into a house where love sound like a curse and morning feel like a storm.

Save de children? Dem boys seh it have to start at home. Before de bell ring, before de teacher talk. Save dem from de first sunrise insult. De war against abuse nah start in de street. It start in de very bed dem children wake up from wishing de sun never rise.

Talk half. Leff half

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Activism, Dem Boys Seh, gender-based violence, insults, Wake up

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Wake up and smell de insults

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