File
LEFT: Gem Myers
Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer
RIGHT: Black-er (left) and Macka Diamond.

Krista Henry and Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writers

In a society where the Virtuous Woman of Warrior King prescribes the ideal for females, while Beenie Man's Ol Dawg character is acceptable for men, the issue of female fidelity has had its fair share of discussion in Jamaican music.

Although quite a few have, not all the songs have prescribed monogamous behaviour for women. On the One-Man Woman side there is the song of just that name, sung by Gem Myers and written by Fabulous Five band's drummer Grub Cooper.

The mid-1980s' song declares in its chorus that "I am a one-man girl, I am a one-man woman" and encourages women to "hol' up han' if yu have one man, wave yu han' if yu have one man".

In 2006, on the deejay side, Michelle 'D'Angel' Downer declared "a one man me got" and "mi know mi baby fadda", the song finding favour with the female dancehall population.

Interestingly, not long after that, her now-estranged husband, Moses 'Beenie Man' Davis, accused his wife of having an affaire with a man in New York and went as far as demanding a paternity test to determine that their child, Marco Dean, was indeed his.

The test confirmed the paternity.

Not 'All Faithful'

It has not been 'all faithful' for the women, though, as in the late 1980s, Admiral Bailey deejayed in his merry way that it was OK for a woman to have more than one male partner. He said:

"Some sey a de method

Some sey a de in ting

Oh, some man have a sweetheart

An a darling

But a no sin, if a two man

yu keepin'..."

While Bailey says that it is acceptable for a woman to have more than one partner as a matter of course, in Bun Him, deejays Macka Diamond and Black-er place female infidelity under specific circumstances of abuse and disrespect.

In the introduction to the combination song, Macka Diamond consults her male deejay counterpart, saying, "Mi have one man, yuh see, a pure problem him a give inna mi life. And now mi caan tek it nuh more, mi nuh know wah fi do. A pure gal a disrespect mi, pure disrespect ting him a deal wid yuh know. Weh mi must do Black-er?"

And Black-er declares, "Bun him!"

In the first verse, Macka Diamond amplifies the issue with "de man go out when him like, come een when him like, chat pon phone wid gal whol' night, inna me sight, yu know dat no right, an when me a talk a me him waan fight ...".

In the chorus, Black-er expands on the 'bunning' to include the removal of assets, deejaying, "Tek man pon him tek de house an' lan' an' run him, bun him tek man pon him, tek di cyar an' van an' run him".

Macka Diamond later released a dancehall novel of the same name and theme Bun Him, in which her female protagonist has a rich husband and a man on the side as a sex partner.

An option

For dancehall artiste Ce'Cile, fidelity is an option.

She is monogamous and does not believe in cheating. Her song Waiting, Ce'Cile claims, comes from a personal experience.

In the song, Ce'Cile embraces waiting on the return of her lover who gives her happiness and treats her like a princess; no matter how long it takes she's not cheating.

She told The Sunday Gleaner: "All of us know women cheat as well. No matter if you're a lady and are not supposed to, they do it too. I personally don't cheat, but I would sing a song about it. The perception that women shouldn't cheat is unfair; a man will see a woman with three man and call her a ho, yet he's a player if he has three women."