A Weakness Called Love: Memoirs of an African Housemaid

CHAPTER 42: THE Dilemma

We were to go with Indo, The woman known for her impatience. She wasn’t impatient in the conventional norm, her impatience was different. she is rather pleasant and without a temper. Her impatience was with poverty. She despises it and can never endure it. Her husband is from Niger Republic, he settled in our village and sought for her hand. She married him, 2 children later he ran away, never to be found again. Her daughter Lami worked, so the Lami sponsored her marriage. But now she was pregnant and the mother was expected to provide the conventional ‘gara’. Food stuff were to be taken to the husband and his family. She wasn’t ready to provide for her daughter although she knew the consequences of it. The husband and his family will despise the daughter and always harass her for that, it may lead to divorce. The case of gara should never be taken lightly. After a lot of counsel from people in the village she decided she will do something. She and her younger were going to get a job in the town. So they did. But she felt she was underpaid, although she was paid much more that all of us, her daughter included, almost twice our salary. the month felt like a year to her and she waits impatiently and eager to collect the salary. After each month she collected the money and pamper herself. This went on for 3months then she decided she can’t cope with a job that pays monthly, she wanted a weekly or daily pay, she has needs and her needs need to be met. She quit, she didn’t just quit she decided to become an unbearable and a rude bitch to all the people she works for.

Alas she quit, and moved to the Public market where she manually grinds pepper for suya sellers, she slept in the market because they paid her on a daily basis and she couldn’t afford rent. She did not mind the shame it will bring to her daughters, she had one reason she had to be paid promptly, waiting a month is unbearable.

After she quit, she begged Halimatu to take her to the house they took her daughter so she can get the girl’s wages. She went the people told her to come back in a week. Which she did and collected it. God knows what she did with the money, because when the daughter put to bed the money had vanished. She did nothing but cried, the daughter also cried, it was a day of tears. She promised the daughter she will borrow money from the suya sellers and come back in a week to take care of things. The naive daughter believed her. Now she sits beside me while we travel yet again to the city.

We finally reached our destination. Shatu and I went inside the house, everyone was happy to see us. They welcomed us heartily. I showed Shatu our room. We kept our stuff. Shatu was out of words. Mouth agape she watched the house in awe. She was in trance. Never in her mortal existence had she seen anything as beautiful as this place. It was beyond her imagination. “heaven on earth!” she managed to say” heaven on earth” she repeated absentminded.

It had been days, but Shatu had completely changed. She did everything out of spite. She broke plates intentionally. She will refuse to come out of our room and do her chores, I did not want Hajiya to fire her.  No doubt I will forever be indebted to Shatu so I did her chores. I couldn’t get time to rest but I endured. She cast them nasty glances and insists she was not born to serve them. When they call her  She pretended not to hear. When she sees mayyams or any of their earnings or valuables left unattended in the sitting room, she will pretend to sweep and makes sure she throws it away. When they ask she feign ignorance and claims she doesn’t know it was useful. Sometimes she makes jokes about them, I laughed out of obligation. I can see Hajiya growing tired of her. When they cook, she will tell them she doesn’t eat this type of stew or that, yet she stole their food and eat it. There was always something new. She made nicknames for all of them that she uses when talking about them behind their backs. Then one day she asked me to do what I never thought she will.
“lets run back home “she suggested.

“no! Why?. You know what this work means to me. It’s my only chance.” I exclaimed

“do they share forgiveness or mercy? Do they give life? Can they give you air to breathe? “she asked sarcastically

“I can deal with physical abuse, but this mental humiliation and degradation I cannot take, how can we be running errands and taking orders from unmarried women? I can take orders from Hajiya at least she is married, they are not men.” She added.

I knew she was right. It has bothered me too, but I had to swallow my pride. The psychological and emotional torture she suffers as a result of having to follow the orders of unmarried women was understandable. Growing up we always knew the importance of men. They rank above all females. No matter the age. A man’s reasoning and thinking is superior to a woman’s. Taking orders from him is an honour but from a woman and an unmarried one for that matter is degrading.

“no, but nobody has to know we take orders from them.  at least they are kind and polite.”

“then they are dispensable, they are nothing but spoilt ugly brats and I refuse to serve them, they are not better than me, look at my flabs and womanly flesh, can anyone of them compete? I am more a woman than any of them. If not for fate I will have been married already. Then they will know for sure i am more in status than them. Can they compete with that?”
Of  course she had gained weight in the house and had finally achieved a lighter skin tone.
“no” I replied timidly
“I will rather go back to the village and sell food again than live in this degradation. At least in the village I know I will be serving men” she continued

“let us appreciate the favour God bestowed on us and thank him by refusing to be degraded by anyone” she said, Yet again

“please” I pleaded.
“I need this, I beg you Shatu, let us at least try” I said desperately

“I’m not forcing you to do anything. I am leaving. You do as you please” she finally said
I know Shatu she is giving me an ultimatum. And believe me she doesn’t forgive easily. I was cornered.
I was lost, confused and scared and couldn’t make a choice.
On one hand I can’t betray Shatu. We stick together that is who we are. I don’t want to offend her. I don’t want to anger her, I know Shatus wrath, it is a volcano. It burns everything within reach.

There is this job that guarantees money for my holy matrimony, which is all that matters. There is Hajiya and everyone who had been nothing but nice to them. I couldn’t decide. I felt conflicted. Shatu had spoken the truth, the bitter truth. Sometimes we just have to endure something to pave way for better things. The truth is I need the finance and the comforts this job gave. I want to be adorned by beautiful womanly fat and flabs before my marriage, so that Mudi will know he married a woman. The nourishment I get from this household seems to do the trick. Even my hair had achieved a darker shade. Before i had a light red hair,  But now it is auburn. Who knows maybe before my marriage it may turn to black.
I told Shatu I will think about it.
“okay” was her only reply.
The next morning, Shatu was gone without goodbye. Hajiya was angry that she ran because hajiya always let people go home if they don’t feel like staying.

I was miserable, I was in psychological and emotional pain. I wondered what became of Shatu,what she was doing and stuff like that.
That evening it became clear as the day what I must do. Painful as it may be, I had to make a choice. I had to suck it up and be a big girl. I chose wisely.

The next evening I was in a bus traveling back to my hometown.

Authors Note
I'm so sorry guys for the delay in the updates. Seems like our story is coming to an end soon. Two more chapters and its a wrap. Thank You all for reading and the feedbacks. I appreciate it. The last chapters will be updated soon. Happy reading!!!