A Weakness Called Love: Memoirs of an African Housemaid

CHAPTER 23: A MYSTERY CALLED LOVE

We now work for a new Hajiya. We all call her Maama. Maama was a different breed. She seem to always forget our names, I could swear it is intentional. She calls us with whatever name that comes to her mind. You just have to answer her. The worst was that you cannot decipher who she is calling. We had to guess.
Today, she called me Delu and I politely said 'it's Ladi' this seem to make her angry and amused at the same time. She called people of her household and told them about what I did. She now said
"See this clown, from today onwards we are going to call her 'stick'"
And so, I came to be known as stick while Zakiyya enjoyed the numerous other names that came to Hajiya's mind.

Hajiya was not mean per se. She just treat us like semi-human beings. Mostly ignoring us and doesn't care what we do with our lives. We were allowed to go out. Most times she sent us on errands in the late night. Maama has a hell of an appetite, sometimes we buy her fish, other times it is fried yam, or beans cake, sometimes tofu. The list is endless. In the beginning we had a hard time understanding the roads, we will often get lost. now we hardly get lost we know almost everywhere.

Hajiya's Daughter Ikilima is a frequent visitor. She is married and lives in another part of the town. She has a house girl that is younger than us. But she never stays in her house. Her husband works in another city. Her house girl said they will watch movies until 3:00am and will sleep the next day only to wake up around 12:00noon or later. They bathe and make a quick meal, they then hit the streets only to return around 9:00pm. This was their routine when the husband was not around.

whenever he comes back, they were entirely different. The tv was never put on. She will wake up as early as 5:00am, pray the fajr prayer, recite the Quran melodiously and loudly. Then she cleans and makes breakfast. She bathe and takes care of the husband. In her spare time she recites the Quran some more, make voluntary prayers and was off her phone. In those days She was the epitome of spirituality.

Maama's  house is a three bedroom house, on the third floor of a dilapidated story building. The building was meant for state civil servants. It was poorly maintained.

Maama makes snacks for weddings and naming ceremonies and we were the work force. We had an order for 200 doughnuts, 200 cupcakes and 200 meat pies. We were working tirelessly, since the order has to be completed by tomorrow. I was kneading the dough while zakiyya was rolling out another batch of the dough when a young boy of about 9 years, who lives on the ground floor of the building entered the house. He greeted Hajiya, who was sitting beside us and giving directions. He then said there was a man outside asking for her, that he said He is Zakiyya's brother from the village.

"No, No, Hell No! I will not tolerate this  nonsense!!! I will not accept useless distractions. I am paying for these girls, is not like they are doing me a favor or anything" Hajiya Said.

She started rubbing her temples, then she continued
"Why are villager daft?" She states asking no one in particular.

"how can someone be this clueless. How is it humanly possible to have someone as dumb as these villagers? " she continued
"What a mystery" she concluded

Ikilima Her daughter who was watching seemed amused and she said
" it's the awfully huge amount of sorghum they consume. It probably washes away some of their brain cells" She then burst into laughter.

Zakiyyah was uneasy, the smile she had when it was announced her brother came to see her quickly vanished.

"Ummm, hmmm, Maama, the thing is He is in one of the almajiri Schools in town and maybe"

"Sooo He can come to my house as if it's  his property?" hajiya interrupted her

"No, I'm sorry Maama" zakiyyah apologized.