In recent weeks, I’ve been coming across some articles that discussed the topics on housemaids, usually in negative situations. Those articles got me thinking about the way majority of middle and upper class Nigerians treat their housemaids. I came to the conclusion that the way and manner housemaids are treated is so inhuman.
From what I’ve observed, they are treated like second-class citizens in the homes where they work. They often don’t share the same living quarters with the rest of the family. Or even if they share the property, they are given the worst spaces possible. They use a different set of utensils to eat, for some reasons as if they are not worthy to use the same as the family they live with. They are often given cast-offs of the children’s clothes or the employer’s old and ragged clothes to wear.
They are spoken to in an unpleasant and humiliating ways. This is something I have observed over and over again. Sometimes, I would visit a friend and she would be speaking with me nicely and politely, and then turn around to use a harsh and intimidating tone on her housemaid, and calls her abusive names. I don’t understand. Sure you can use an uncompromising tone when you are giving instructions to an employee but is there any need for the constant stream of abuse? Would any of us take that kind of attitude from our managers at the office? Why do we think that they don’t have feelings, and they cannot be hurt by the terrible words we throw at them? Is it fair? Doesn’t the Bible say something about the way we use our tongues to praise God and curse our fellow human beings?
This brings me to my next point. Housemaids in Nigeria have little or no employment rights. They have regular working hours, due to the nature of their work. But they also don’t get any benefits. They don’t have days off – they work all day, everyday. They don’t have holidays. They don’t have anything called a social life except when they are escorting madam or madam kids to a birthday party or any other functions. They don’t get sick days off or sick pay. The best they get from oga or madam is some tablets of paracetamol or panadol.
Often they don’t go to school and can’t learn any skill while they are working for their mistresses. I’m sure none of us professional ladies would ever imagine working for a company that didn’t give us any time off or holidays, or allow us any social life. We would protest those working conditions, but we give the same treatment to our own employees.
I have heard women complaining bitterly when it’s Christmas time, and their maid wants to take a couple of weeks off to go and visit her family. It’s like, it is not her right to demand for such,. If you can take some days off to be with your family, why can’t she do the same? Why are we so dependent of our maids that we cannot function properly without them still we treated them like miss nobody meanwhile they even play the most important role of our life.
Furthermore, the physical violence towards them is just what I understand; still they are all we depend on in the house to function well. Women who won’t raise a hand to strike their own children seem to see no harm in beating their maids at the slightest offence. For some reason, the maid always deserves a beating whenever she makes a mistake, whereas their children do worse things, but they don’t get beaten. Why do we give a harsher treatment to our maids when we know that virtually they are the burden carrier of our homes? They are supposed to be the most favoured in the home due to the nature of their job. Would any of us tolerate physical abuse at work? Why do we think it is okay to hit our maids?
The most funniest thing is that these mistreatments are not limited to any type of woman. I have witnessed women from all spheres of life mistreating their housemaids. Even women who should know better, like Pastors’ wives, lawyers or human rights activists.
We can speak out against so many injustices in the world, but for some reason, we seem to turn a blind eye to the ones we do right under our nose.
The irony is that, we maltreat our maids, and then leave our children and house in their care when we are not around. Shouldn’t we be worried that the treatment we meted out to them could be taken out on the children? I’m sure there are many innocent children who bear the repercussion of the maid’s frustration because of the attitude she gets from her employers.
I would like to imagine a world where housemaids can point to the time they spent with their employers and say that those years were one of the best times of their lives. ###
Edith Nse Friday
08025293937
fridaynse@yah.com
