Building a home and raising children are two herculean tasks that the two principal persons in home building cannot handle alone. By this I mean the husband and the wife. No matter how devilish and evil-minded a maid is you still need one at home. The need for assistance in the running of errands and home chores makes the home builders to seek for assistance. Most times the management of this business of getting a helper in the house lies strictly on the woman of the house. The reason for this is because it is believed that a woman is a home manager.
The man who is the head of the home front is the chairman. As a chairman, he is bestowed with too many responsibilities that he has little or no time to take care of domestic issues. The woman often times, is at home so she runs the errand at home. As earlier stated the task of taking care of home affairs is not a child’s play. The children are there beckoning for attention including Mr. Chairman. The task of going to the market, cocking, laundry, cleaning the house and the environment is the task of a typical house wife. Though a house wife who stays at home often, she still needs assistance in the person of a “house maid” these days baptized as “house helps”.
The career woman is the worst hit in the running of the home. She is faced with her career duties as well as her home duties. The society has no kudos for any woman who is found lacking in home responsibilities. They are not interested in what the career woman goes through on a daily basis. They believe that whether she is a lawyer, a banker, a medical doctor, a teacher, an actress, a minister of the gospel or whatever, home matters should be seen as the number one in the priority list. The woman faced with these challenges and expectations must seek for one to bail her out and so she comes looking for a helper.
Those who have younger ones have no problem as one or two of the younger ones are co-opted into the family as soon as needed. Some women also bring in their husband’s relations to help. It is these two “Ms” that have attracted my attention this day and what we shall be exploring is the relationship that exists between the two m’s. Ml which stands for the Madam of the house as well as M2 which stands for the maid in the house.
Among these categories of house helps, the one related to the woman usually has less problem because she is part and parcel of her maiden home. The madam of the house most times treats her like an integral part of her existence. The case is not the same with the maid from her husband’s angle. Most times, these ones are treated as if they are strangers from strange lands. Often times they are not adequately catered for by the madam of the house. In such circumstances I have actually wondered why the ones from madam’s angle fare better than the ones from the Chairman’s side. If the blood relationship is what is responsible for the good treatment which madam’s people receive, is it not the same blood or tie that binds madam and her husband’s people? Through marriage madam has united with the family she is married to and in Igbo land, she is not married to her man alone but to the entire family members including the ones that have come to render assistance in the home. How come that sometimes some madams see those ones as animals while their own relations are human beings?
Among the classes of maids mentioned earlier the greatest sufferers are the ones who come from distant places – the one who has little or no blood link to the madam’s family background. The reason is not farfetched, as most married women believe that the maid is a nobody who comes from a poor and peasant home. To them the maids are more or less mere slaves and as slaves they should be simply recognized as such. Armed with this dangerous philosophy madam sets her foot on the throttle and begins to navigate the life of the poor maid with greater damnation and condemnation.
The maid is subjected to all kinds of odd jobs. For instance, it is the maid who must stand in the heavy traffic to sell pure water, plantain chips, oranges, etc thereby exposing them to vulnerable situations. Most times the females among them suffer rapes while their male counterparts turn to street urchins.
To others they must be the ones to do virtually all the work in the home such as cooking, washing etc. It becomes worst when the madam has grown children who can help in the home chores. But rather than Madam’s children assisting the maid in the house chores, the girls of the house turn themselves into small madams issuing their own orders to the same maid. How will such a maid survive in such circumstances?
Some of these maids are boldly deprived of formal education even in states like Imo where free Education thrives. Their madams will not send them to school because of want of time. Yes! They must remain at home to answer to madam’s beck and call. Or worst still madam may not want them exposed to formal education because interaction with teachers and fellow students will expose them to greater heights and madam does not want such. When and if ever madam wants to send her to school, it will not be a good one.
Also a typical maid in the hand of a typical “Jezebel” suffers malnutrition because even in this 21st century, some madams feed their maids from the crumbs that fall from the table. I have seen those who have different pots of soup for their maids. The pot of soup made for the maid contains little or no ingredients that can nourish the body while madam and her children feed fat. Some even allow the maid go hungry, as long as there are duties to be done in the house. The maid remains hungry until all of those chores are dismantled. On empty stomach a typical maid walks several miles to fetch water, and fire wood. On empty stomach she washes basins of clothes, sweeps very large compounds. She is usually the first to wake up and the last to go to bed. When you ask madam, she answers that she is taking the maid through a process of home training. Training indeed!!
Some maids have suffered untold hardship and treatments worse than slavery in the hands of their so called madams. Some time ago, I read in one of our dailies the story of a young woman who gave her house maid who is no older than just nine years the beating and biting of the poor girl’s life. The story drew tears from my eyes, as I equally felt ashamed to identify that woman as belonging to my sect. How can a mother who has given birth to two children, allow the level of her anger get to the extent of biting such a tender child to the extent of bitting the child’s private part.
The woman is not only a beast; she is equally a pig, and not fit to beer the identify of womanhood. How did she descend so low as to bite the private part of some one she sees as lowly and wretched? As far as I am concerned, she is the one who deserves worse treatment than she meted to the girl. I am very pleased to hear that she is cooling her feet in detention. By the time she will have the chance to see the sky again, if ever, she will know that khaki no bi leather.
