...
written by aeichener , April 21, 2007

One might be inclined to treat this story as fiction. But IMO, this glimpse just shows a much underacknowledged "other side of the coin". Yes, there are many exploitative, inhuman, callous mistresses and masters in Kenya. Househelps more often than not have a bad life. John Githingo once wrote an excellent piece about this, when he was still a journalist: comparing white and black masters.
But there is also the counterpart: the abusive, illoyal, manipulative servant, where it is he who in reality directs his master or mistress as an "evil spirit". European literature of the 18th and 19th centuries knows some examples.

Of bad servants
written by Nekessa , April 22, 2007

yes, the other side of the story. Perhaps we shall get a narrative on the more common than not mistreatment by Kenyans of house servants too.

Bottom line, I suppose lies with an individual, and their power, whether perceived or not. Perhaps too is a perception on Kenyan society and the stark difference between classes.

That being said, evil (although evil is such a strong word) knows no profession, class nor education.

Of bad masters and mistresses
written by aeichener , April 22, 2007

yes, the other side of the story. Perhaps we shall get a narrative on the more common than not mistreatment by Kenyans of house servants too.

Here you are, dear:

John Githongo: Why Maids Prefer White Masters

Alexander

Sam is my brother
written by donworry , April 23, 2007

The above story shows the incredible challenges that modern households face. It is easy to imagine Angie's mum as some high-flying executive who needs house-helps to run her large home as she jets around the globe in her demanding career with XYZ ,a multinational corporation. More likely, as the writer points out in the opening line, is that Angie's family is like that of millions of other lazy pseudo-bourgeoise families who hire sevants to do the jobs that they hate.....because they can.

I like Sam. He is the hero as far as I am concerned. He has the difficult task of domesticating the lazy housewife's tiresome children. In between that he must cook, clean, mow the lawn and wash the cars. This hardly leaves time for a nice evening in watching telly with his adopted family. I notice the generosity that Sam displays when he chooses to feed the neighbours' helps and watchies. The other household must speak very highly of Angie's mum.

He is a rare man, our Sam. We owe him full credit for he has taught the young boy of the house the joys of honest work. I believe that in the fullness of time he will tame the restless Angie and turn her into a domestic goddess.

I remember how this government promised to introduce a social security system that would act as a safety net and a way of getting people on their feet. They also promised the creation of 500,000 real jobs. They were talking of social benefits for themselves, it seems. As long as we have a system where we can hire people to pick our noses and scratch our backs there will be Sams and Angies struggling to get along.

P.S
Angie, Sam uses the computer to surf the web when you are out, avoid anything he cooks for a while...........

...
written by Kamale , April 23, 2007

Sometime back on a trip to Dar es salaam, I was riding in this car with a Tanzanian fellow as we left work to go for a drink by the beach. You see, unlike Nairobi, Dar has evening newspapers and they see quite popular with the people of Bongoland. So we are driving in this slow traffic jam and the vendor has thrust his papers into the car and is chasing the car for his payment. I suggested we could pull over so that we make the payment, but my Tanzania friend would not stop.

So he tells this fellow to keep running as he refused to run to school when he was younger and is now condemned to running after cars to get his dues paid.

The lesson I was supposed to learn was the importance of education in the African context. School was far and not to be late one ensured that they run to school most of the time.

So I will under the circumstance not understand why Sam is being given any space in Angie's home. The fellow is a lazy bum who prefers to overwork the children of the master when he sits and watches TV and feeds the neighbours.

I am surprised at Angie's mum for keeping the fellow. But it could be that Angie does not understand the relation her mother has with Sam.

sub-standard treatment??
written by charity , April 24, 2007

OK! OK! OK! I hear you all. Just some insight that I should add onto this TRUE story. I go to Angie's house more often than I visit my parents (don't ask) but here is a scenario where Sam is being paid Ksh 5500 per month, he stays at the servants quarter free of charge, he washes, and irons his clothes at Angie's home, he doesn't spend a dime! He uses bathing soap, colgate etc. from the house too. In addition to all this, He is all alone from 8am to 5pm while everyone is at work. Clothes are washed in a washing machine, there is a dish washer at home, the only task he has is to clean the house, wash the cars, and maintain the garden! Is that asking for too much? I don't think he is receiving 'sub-human' treatment! I should have mentioned that Sam actually sells this food to the surrounding servants. Any one out here with some good advice for my pal because I truly believe she will pull a trigger soon!

...
written by Msamaria Mwema , April 24, 2007

Angie has bought many new clothes over the years. Many clothes that she loved and treasured, which cost her a lot of money ...

If Angie is old enough to buy her own clothes, then she is old enough to iron them. I think she is also old enough to have her own place and employ her very own househelp.

But generally, I think we treat househelps like sub-humans. You pay somebody sh 2000 a month and expect him/her to work 24/7. Most of the househelps cannot have a relationship outside their work because their employers think a househelp is a slave that must have his/her life controlled to the T. The end result is a relationship with the master/mistress or their kids. Most young men have first lessons from maids.

Why indeed do househelps prefe
written by Sijui , April 25, 2007

white masters?

Because we as Africans treat them as slaves rather than humans! This is one thing that infuriates me about Kenyans... we appear to have internalized and institutionalized THE WORST ATTRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN CLASS PREJUDICE! Let's be honest with ourselves, this is a classic "man eat dog" story. How often do househelps have the opportunity to be manipulative, conniving and ruthless? 90% of the time they are cowering in humiliation in our homes!!! If I hear another Kenyan call a fellow 'African' 'mboch', housegirl/house boy or shamba man, I'll be thoroughly convinced that indeed slavery was nothing more than an extension of an African institution that was made more profitable and efficient! I'm not saying that it is cruel to have domestic help, what I'm saying is that it is patently ridiculous for us to perpetuate a fake class structure when we are all living a Third World existence. Runda or Githurai, we're still a Third World country...

...
written by charity , April 26, 2007

I love the way you use the word 'if' Alex - If I may call you so? I love both option one and two. I am trying to fit into Angie's shoes. What would I do? If (please note that I used that word too) I was Angie, I don't think I would mind any other man replacing my dad BUT Sam in that household. On the other hand, I would surely go and look for those mungiki guys to not only rough him up but finish the job!

Slavery aside! We all need help, whether it's at work or at home. In the office you would still need that beautiful young lady to serve you with your daily cup of coffee. As much as we need them, they need us too, respect comes both ways! IF you respect me, I will respect you! If you try to step on me, I will make sure I crush you and that's just how it is! I may be blinded by the fact that my best friend is the victim here but lets face the facts, these things happen in many if not most homes. The question is how many are brave enough to adress them?

Interpretation prolegomena
written by aeichener , April 26, 2007

This article by Charity Kivuli is remarkably complex behind its deceptive "a true story" label. Or maybe my inner literary critic has just torn the leash that has held him back, and is now roaming freely through the comments section, like an imp showing off. Let's listen to him:

There are various modes of reading, registering and understanding such a piece; all of them depending upon the intellectual, moral and emotional framework into which the readers will - consciously or unconsciously - try to paste and insert it.

On one hand, one can read it as just one individual (and entertaing) sob story. Well written enough for that purpose it is certainly, far beyond the smarmy and fake "Mildred Ngesa" level of the Kenyan press.

One can also read it as a more literarily crafted short story from a child's (or rather: "youngster's" perspective. This is apter to do justice, because the angle of view, the way of perceiving and describing the awesome might of the "ogre within the home", are a well-known literary phenomenon, much reminding me of Franz Kafka.

One can then put the story into a perspective. The "evil servant" is a well-known figure in 18th and 19th century literature. The contrast between nominal subservience and factual might has often sparked a writer's fantasy.

Then, there is the psychological interpretation which some commentators have - at least tentatively - undertaken. The depiction of a powerful and evil servant, a big noxious bug that has nested in the previously bucolic and peaceful household, and is destroying it (did I write Kafka above? yes I did) is then taken as a sign of psychological projection and blame shifting. Instead of acknowledging and accepting the vile reality of the widespread exploitation of domestic servants (financial and sexual), such an analyst might suspect that the bad conscience is assuaged by demonifying the victim. Psychoanalysis at work. This, certainly, is not an altogether uncommon phenomenon, and black people should be especially aware of it, because this ploy of the conscience has been so often turned against them, in a racist past. Just compare the "coon" image of US ignominy, just peruse the colonial narratives of evil bloodthirsty natives in need of pacification (some of which reports were doubtlessly true, which makes them doubly dangerous), just see a hideous - and artistically brilliant - movie such as "Birth of a Nation".
Nevertheless I think it might be a misassessment to interpret either Angie's narrative or Charity's rendering in this way (putting them on the Freudian couch, so to speak), but I obviously cannot rule it out, not knowing either of them personally.

Leaving the safe porch seat of interpretation now, I would nevertheless try to offer a comment or two on the RL situation as such, and not just on the written opus:

Firstly, I think that Kamalet has offered a pithy and excellently insightful interpretation in his last sentence, lightly veiled. Angie would do very well to confront the possible reality of what may be obvious to many if not most, except for herself. (Charity has very artfully "blended out" this facet in her "subjective perspective" narrative: excellent job)

Secondly, power structures in the household seem to be so that the children hold very little direct agency against the powerful and abusive majordomo. That is what they feel, and while the emotion may be a bit kafkaesque, it is a subjective reality for them.
- Trying to sway the mother will in all likelihood only provoke backlash, and will alienate the children further from her.
- Trying to win over the (absenteist? already separated? occupied-with-a-mistress?) father would not help Angie either. On the contrary, it would only accelerate the decomposition of the family, would speed the impending divorce (for the obvious reason to which Kamale has alluded) and would even fortify the position of the majordomo in future, for he would then entirely replace the father.

Thirdly, the child-like wishful dream option of bringing the parents back together (if everything only became again like in a possibly glorified mirthful past) is hardly realistic. Pulling the trigger, shooting the ogre and cutting off his big toe may be more realistic (if the children are astute and determined, they *will* eventually find a way to gain access to the gun closet, if there be one, unless it has a numeric combination lock), but will destroy what little is left of their respective lives.

I think only two options remain:
a) hook up the mother with another and better lover, one from a better background (an option quite sympathetic to the children, because it would appeal to their residual remnants of snobbisness and class thinking to which a few commentators have alluded), and then have Sam kicked out;
b) have a gang of Mungiki rough up Sam for good, and make them convey to him that it is in the very best interest of his limb and life (not to speak of his endangered manhood) that he *immediately* move and seek a new employment far away, without leaving an address or contact. Costs between 5000 and 10,000 KSh and would be a very worthwhile investment. The risk however remains that they might go a bit too far.

Alexander

Post scriptum:
Don Worry's iridescent irony may do more justice to the piece than my impish naiveté. What if the rendering from Angie's subjective perspective were more a product of her fertile imagination and interpretation? A nightmare fuelled by jealousy, anxiety, and a child's (or youngster's) desire for the reunion of a family that is drifting apart - blaming the foreign "intruder" for all evil that she sees or meets. What if Sam were in reality just a stern but diligent servant, with a strong sense of pedagogical responsibility, demonized by a forlorn, imaginative, angstful child?

The reader remains, ultimately, the judge. As s/he always is.

it happens to all
written by Ben , April 26, 2007

Charity has bravely opened a box that is generally a taboo subject.

I met a friend in the pub just last thursday and he had a similar story to tell. He whispered to me how he suspected that his wife was having an affair with "the cook". He believed that it had been going on several months.

My pal works as a member of cabin crew for a well known airline and he spends most nights away from home. He originally hired the big and strong cook (a distant relative from the rural homeland) as a security measure to protect his family when he spends nights away.

I listened to my buddy as he poured his heart out, knowing that little that I said or did could be of any help. We drank a lot more than we should have that evening and I ended up agreeing to act as a private detective to see if I could uncover any evidence of wrong doing.

I agreed to start by interviweing neighbours and other people in the area. My pal's wife was my ex-wife's maid-of-honour at our wedding so I have been able to talk to her very freely over the past few days. I have learnt some really hot news but I cannot publish my discoveries just yet until I have informed my pal who will be arriving tomorrow.

damn!
written by Unhappy wife!!! , April 26, 2007

As much as we may like to deny it or hide it, it's a reality! I think I should call shiko from easy FM to 'bust' my husband whom I also suspect is cheating on me with my house girl!

baby don\'t cry
written by no problem , April 26, 2007

I love the way you use the word 'if' Alex - If I may call you so? I love both option one and two. I am trying to fit into Angie's shoes. What would I do? If (please note that I used that word too) I was Angie, I don't think I would mind any other man replacing my dad BUT Sam in that household. On the other hand, I would surely go and look for those mungiki guys to not only rough him up but finish the job!

Slavery aside! We all need help, whether it's at work or at home. In the office you would still need that beautiful young lady to serve you with your daily cup of coffee. As much as we need them, they need us too, respect comes both ways! IF you respect me, I will respect you! If you try to step on me, I will make sure I crush you and that's just how it is! I may be blinded by the fact that my best friend is the victim here but lets face the facts, these things happen in many if not most homes. The question is how many are brave enough to adress them?

Take tips from me, I once had an encounter like that, when I couldn't stand her no more, our maid I mean, I came home with a very dirty medicine bottle, and covered with plastic paper and threatened her that I was from a witch doctor, and in the bottle I was carrying was a potion that once opened, would unleash an incurable disease to her! It worked like magic, she disappeared the next morning and I poured out the water!!!

Bad and Good.
written by Sam , April 29, 2007

One time, our longest serving house keeper left for her hometown in Uganda, never to return. Let me tell you about Grace (RIP mama, u ran a good race). To us 'Grace' was way more than a housemaid. For starters, in my family we never called maids 'maids'. 'Aunty' it was. We had loved Grace so much, my younger siblings thought she was their mother. She ran the household to perfection. She was responsible for our discipline, if we messed, we had to weed the kitchen garden, or scrub the bathrooms, or do laundry or worse clean the garage. Then she left, never to return. We got word she passed on, and cussed our parents for never attending her funeral. They tried to trace her in vain. We had loved Grace so much.

For the next 4 years, we went thru girls who moved us from one frustration to another. One of the teenagers was busted in Kisumu for prostitution, whatever that was, but we did have some trouble.

At one time, we returned home for lunch to find the house swept clean, amebeba mpaka sukari.In our household, maids ran every thing. And NO, Donworry, our mother was no lazy house wife; a busy woman in a different town working and running family business. At any time she supervised 9 workers in addition to her day job, and our father prefered staying with us because he had better benefits and good schools at his disposal.

After the 4 year spell of bad house keepers, an elderly divorced woman was sent our way. And she was the female version of Sam, and I Angie, a working teenager. Angie's mother was my father -who was so scared of loosing another maid, he would not listen to any of our complains.

I was not about to leave my siblings at the mercy of a woman, who got paid more than primary school teachers. She was paid by my father's employer, an amount 0f kes 12,000 a month. Yet she walked in with a list of what she would and would not do: I dont clean tiles, I dont scrub bathrooms, I dont Iron, I dont know how to prepare fish/beef dishes (am vegan), no chapatis, pilau or spaghetti, and I dont dust. Cool, the first 2 weeks we tolerated the nonsense. Never mind that the household had only 4 kids, who took care of their business, and she would not even welcome our visitors. My father still remained adamant she was good.
Of course he left at 5am and returned at 11pm. Our household, so simple to run she did nothing but gossip with neighbors on the phone. But maids can be silly, the same gets back to us, the dump things she said. We didnt care what she said to whomever, but when she uttered her refusal to cook and perfom simply because my sister and I were teenagers who should do housework, aha! she got her pay.

I agree, we were grown and help was in order, but then why was she drawing the pay, and the overtime to boot?. Yet mkono gamu. She never ever lived in the servant quaters, a thing my parents would not allow anyway, even then, there were free rooms in the main house. She even got bathroonm towels from the family.
We simply hatched a plan, my siblings and I to teach her a lesson. Chilled till she left for evening gossip at the club, then went on all cooking sprees...everything on cook shows, pulled out all the cutlery, ran around mudying the white tiles and turned off the heater/refrigerator so only cold water ran and all food spoilt, Then we threw our father's shirts in the tub with running water, to look like she had started cleaning. We got in a public peugeot and left to be with our mom. Our father had no idea how the household was run, so he would assume she had just been malingering all day, and poor planning.

She had learnt her lesson on return, and we never had trouble about who was working for whom around there!

She still is our house keeper. Not as good as Grace, but has some tips about life.

So Angie, I call it put him in his place, si kwa ubaya.

...
written by charity , May 11, 2007

Pole sana about grace. And thanks for the inspiration. I am sure Angie would be grateful. HAve a splendid day!

ati??
written by Stubborn , May 13, 2007

I disagree anonymous, I think that the point being put across here is the fact that house helps go beyong the line. The issue is not about Angies brother and sister assisting in house chores, there is a difference betwen assisiting and overdoing it. Read the article again and try and understand it.

...
written by a guest , May 14, 2007

I loved the article. It shows us how we think house helps are second class citizens and should they stray they should be put back in their place. The very fact that the main character is not amused that her brother and sister assist the help in doing chores is a reflection of how we view the house help. We pay them little money and for that we expect them to do a lot of work. This may have been a fictional family but the truth is this attitude is found in many households across the country.

been there
written by shiku , June 27, 2007

I totally understand Angie's frustration having gone through the same experience. our house help had overtaken the household and had become rude to my mother(his employer) till we could not take it anymore. When he was finally fired, thats when he realized that he will never have a family that had treated as we had: trying to make him part of the family; thats when we understood that without being mean, there will always have to be a master and a servant. we cannot all be equal....

...
written by a guest , June 30, 2007

If Angie is old enough to buy her own clothes, then she is old enough to iron them. I think she is also old enough to have her own place and employ her very own househelp.



At the age of 16 I saved up some of my pocket money and bought myself clothes on the odd occasion, does that mean I should have got my own place and employed a househelp on my 500 a month?

I loved the article. It shows us how we think house helps are second class citizens and should they stray they should be put back in their place. The very fact that the main character is not amused that her brother and sister assist the help in doing chores is a reflection of how we view the house help. We pay them little money and for that we expect them to do a lot of work. This may have been a fictional family but the truth is this attitude is found in many households across the country.

I agree with you in so far as there are people that mistreat their housegirls and treatr them like second class citizens but that is blatantly not what is happening in this article.

What astounds me in the responses above is the fact that the mistreatment of young children is being excused on the basis that some people treat their domestic workers terribbly. What of those that don't?

The youngest member of our family was adopted at an early age having gone through more pain in his short 3 year life than anyone should have to endure in a lifetime. Our trusted and beloved "Sam" ensured that she felt like a dispensible member of the family. Even going so far as to burn her hands whenever things did not go 'Sams' way.

I can ignore her stealing from us, gossiping about our family and even for the rift she ccaused between the older members of the family. What I will never forgive her for is her emotional and physical abuse of my younger sister.

@ Donworry, generalisations do nothing but expose ignorance.

...
written by Watetu , July 01, 2007

Anonymous,

From my reading of the 'story' her brother and sister were not assiting in the chores voluntarily.

As far as being 'put back in their place' that is the reality of every individual that is employed. In any work environment, everyone has a set boundary that they are not to cross and in the event that they do, they are put back in their place and no one would have a problem with that.

Does that make every employed individual a second class citizen? If your answer to that is yes then don't fret, Domestic workers are in good company!