A Weakness Called Love: Memoirs of an African Housemaid

Chapter 29: SHE IS MARRIAGE WORTHY

I'm officially on hunger strike. It started subtly. My father refused to back down from his unreasonable decision. At first I lost my appetite. I couldn't eat for three days. This got my parents, especially my father concerned. He was worried sick. Then I decided to go on hunger strike to teach them a lesson.
I will refuse to eat whatever my family provided. I will go to Shatu's and eat whatever I could get. Sometimes we went to the market, whenever we find Mudi there, he buys me a plate of rice and beans with Salad. Mudi was becoming more romantic. We talked about how much we love each other and about some irrelevant stuff. The fact that I talk with him makes it the most interesting conversation on earth.

Meanwhile, Shatu's mother talked to my mother as promised. I was eager to listen to their conversation. I crept and eavesdropped. I can hear Shatu's Mother saying:

"look, there is no time to waste my dear friend. A girl has finally find herself a good man, why would you deny her. Religiously it is said three things shall never be delayed: among them is a woman who has found herself a good suitor, whom you are satisfied with his religion, then the marriage shall not be delayed.  let's face it, Ladi and Shatu are not getting any younger. All their age mates are married except lahwu, the girl afflicted heavily by jinns. It is humiliating to mention her and our kids in the same category. Now God has saved you from this agony and it is like you do not want to be saved. Let her marry him."

My mother replied:

"I know, I'm also worried. It is maigida who has refused to see this wisdom. He is  blinded by his love for kin. I even begged him. I am not ready to lose a child because of his stupid stubbornness."

"talk to him again, let him wake up and face reality." She replied

They continued talking about village gossip, then they start talking about cooking, food and boring stuff. I left

It has been ages we saw Hajara, it is time we pay her a visit. We carefully avoided visiting her because all the town were echoing we are behind the rejection of her father's choice of a suitor. It was even said we instigated her unruly behaviour. Now that she is over her rebellion, we can visit her. In this short while, Hajara has become a devoted wife. She seem to like her husband and even gets jealous at the mention of him with another woman. I still can't believe it.
I went to shatu with the proposal to which she agreed. We decided to go there that day and in the night we can check on the moonlight games.

Hajara's house is a bit far from ours. We walked a long way before we finally reached. They live in the family house. We make our salam, and entered. Seeing us, Hajara threw the plate she was holding, ran and hugged us both. She was excited to see us. She welcomed us  and ushered us to her room. The people in the compound were watching us, they were sneering at us, hajara was  not bothered in the least. However, there was a girl who paid no attention to us, she  just pass us by without giving us as much as a stare. They all knew who we were, how could they not know? After all, I was the girl obsessed with her cousin's husband while Shatu the naive girl who was helping me usurp her sister's husband.

The house is a very big house, Hajara's father in Law is affluent, but he is very traditional. He is traditional to a fault. All the men in the village admired his ways and he was respected. He insists they all eat the same thing and at the same time. That is a single food is cooked for the entire house. A cooking schedule was made, all the women have memorized it. Two women collaborate to cook a meal. All the men eat together. A Mat is brought out and the men all sat on it and eat. Likewise all the children in the household eat together according to their age grade. This according to him, is the only way to keep the family together, to nurture the love for kin and to hold and guard what God the Almighty has ordained. Religiously all people are enjoined to safeguard the ties of kinship. it is said whoever want to live a long blissful life should uphold the ties of kinship. Cutting ties of Kinship is a great sin. God is angry with him who severe family bonds.

After we entered into Hajara's room I asked her about the young girl that didn't even looked at us, I felt she was arrogant. She is a girl of about 11 years, she is married to hajara's brother in Law, she is the second wife. Hajara narrated

"she is a very ungrateful girl, when she was married 2months ago, women in the household felt protective of her and were very compassionate towards her, in fact, they insisted she should be taken out of the cooking roaster. But being the unappreciative witch she is, she protested, she said "never has a woman died of household chores, being a wife comes with responsibilities and obligations, I will never shy away from my duties as a wife, no matter how hard it may be." Hajara said mimicking the girls voice sarcastically.

"She takes the wife thing to another level, competing with her is like competing with a highly maintained robot, she may be small and young but she puts all the women in this compound to shame. She is impeccable, she cooks well and  on time. She doesn't even gossip. The women have a theory, they think she has been possessed by a female spirit who protects and help her. That's the only logical explanation, I tell you. I tried competing but I give up, there was no use, she is unbeatable. The women don't really like her."
She raised her hands in surrender as she concludes her story.

We all burst out laughing.

We talked, giggled, laughed and gossiped. she gave us food and water. It was already late, so we borrowed hajara's cosmetics and put on some makeup. She then walked us out. We headed to the village square. The girls had  already gathered and were playing one of my favourite games.  Ameena was at the centre of it all, enjoying herself. A girl stands in front of other girls, her back facing the girls. She intentionally falls behind and the girls catch her and throw her up as hard as the can,she jumps the same time they throw her and lands on her feet then they do it all over again.  while all the other girls sang in unison. At the end of the song another girl takes her place.
We were thinking of joining the game, when a young boy walked over with two rubber cups of hot milky tea and a loaf of bread. Hands outstretched,  he informed us the man over there sent him. He points to a man in his mid forties. The man smiled at us stupidly and I instantly recognize him. It was Hajji Shatima.

"he said he will like to see Ladi " the boy added with a smile.

Shatu was disgusted and let out a weird sound, she then say to the boy "look, take this things back to him ant tell him Ladi is as good as engaged, " Shatu was strong, I can tell she wanted the tea as bad as I did. I can't remember the last time i had tea. Plus this one is with milk. I swiped a drop of sliver on my chin with the back of my hands. How it escaped from my mouth is still a mystery to me.  The tea smelled like heaven. 

The boy was about to leave when I called out

"wait, hand them over, tell him I say okay"

I quickly collected it and handed Shatu a cup

"I don't understand, what is wrong with you? I thought you loved Mudi? What do you see in that old dirtily packed sack of flesh?"

"Shatu, Shatu don't be slow, it doesn't suit you. I don't like that mess, I just saw an opportunity and I took it. I can't even think of him in a romantic way. Apart from being old enough to be my father, we always played in his house as kids. Hajji Shatima will be our clay bank, more like a depositor to our clay bank who eventually gets nothing. We will enjoy his money and I shall marry the love of my life. It's not like I begged him for the goodies, no need to let this delicacy go to waste"

Shatu gave me her evil grin,

"smart, but we have to be careful" she says

"of course" I replied

Ameena and the girls now saw us approaching each with a cup of milky tea, the girls looked at us with admiration and envy, nobody knew the source. We just smiled and sipped our goodies. Ameena was restless she wanted to know how we could afford such delicacy.

Finally Ameena couldn't hold it in anymore She finally asked

"you girls are enjoying, the tea looks delicious. Where'd you get it?"

Shatu put her in her place by saying

"not everybody is as poor as you, miss ugly. Always remember that"

Ameen smiled her devilish smile, and refused to offer a response.

Some of the girls asked for a sip. We gave those we liked and refused those we don't. Ameena never asked for a sip she kept smiling her devilish smile that never mean good things.