Dawya Ranks tackles Jamaica’s ‘jacket’ crisis on new track Dawya Pickney

Ministry of Health and Wellness figures indicate that large numbers of Jamaican men have been wrongly named as fathers. The ministry says up to 23 per cent of babies born locally are not matched to their biological dad.

That scale of paternity fraud — called a jacket in local slang — comes as no shock to entertainer Dawya Ranks. His new release, Dawya Pickney, treats the widespread problem with humour. Lloyd Shaw produced the track for Issachar Musik, the Los Angeles label behind the project.

The long-serving deejay says he understands the frustration of men misled by partners. “It’s about a girl who get pregnant for me back in di day, but she never told mi an’ give [the child] to a next man. But di truth come to light an’ mi realise dat is my pickney, so as a real father, yuh jus’ own yuh youth,” said Dawya Ranks.

A Tower Hill, St Andrew native, he has spent more than three decades in the studio. He argues that jackets are nothing new and stretch back to scripture. “If yuh check it out, dem seh Mary (in the Bible) get pregnant without having sex. Di word of God seh, man an’ woman come together an’ bring forth a youth, so at di end of di day it mus’ be somebody who breed Mary,” he charged.

Cases of disputed fatherhood have risen sharply across Jamaica over the last decade. In April last year, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton noted: “A widely cited figure from Polygenics Consulting, a Jamaican DNA testing firm, suggests that 70 per cent of tests conducted since 2017 have returned negative paternity results.” A substantial share of those checks are required when men seek permanent residence for their children in Canada or the United States.