The Sunday Mail
“What kind of a person are you? Why did you open the gate for him? What if he had killed me? Are you still interested in working here?” are some of a flurry of questions — which did not need answers — that were hurled at Revai by her employer’s daughter, who was holding her with one hand while knocking her head with the other.
Even Rachel, the biblical mother of nations, would have wept in her grave seeing how this woman was being tormented by someone half her age.
Though she could have easily punched the slender employer’s daughter to wriggle out of harm’s way, Revai kept her cool for fear of losing her job.
It is this job which had made it possible for her to pay fees for her children and at least put food on the table for her aged parents back home.
Gentle reader, Revai’s resilience was being tested in the most difficult way, but she kept her cool to ensure her next pay packet was guaranteed.
Such is the abuse maids have to contend with on an ordinary day under the roofs we call home.
Popularly known as “Sisi”, “Tete”, “Auntie”, “Musikana Webasa”, “Mop Driver”, “Spoon and Turner” or “Helper”, these women of various ages, shapes and sizes are going through hell at their workplaces.
If there is a best-selling novel to be published, it would be written by a maid.
These people live in a world of agony and tears. They cry a lot and are made to put up with a lot of rubbish, with very little or no one keen to incline an ear to the challenges they face.
Some abusive employers hire out maids to their colleagues with no benefit whatsoever to the hired-out soul.
If a sick relative visits, whether or not the disease is contagious does not matter, the maid is tasked to take care of them and share the bed with the sick person.
It can be worse for maids who assist their employers’ children with homework.
If the child does well in class, well and fine.
In lucky cases the maid gets a half-hearted thank you.
But wait until the child fails and you hear parallels being drawn or the maid being accused of being a witch.
It is not unusual for employers to enter the maid’s cottage when they are off or to open their bags just to check whether or not the worker will not be helping herself to the employer’s monthly household provisions.
Most maids are forced to lie to their employers because of the conditions they find themselves in.
They usually lie that their mother or father is sick just to get some time off from the workplace, where they are made to sweat day and night for every dollar they get.
“Haungangopa munhu mari yako pasina basa raaita. She must work for her money,” you hear some people unashamedly saying at church.
The moment some women hire maids, they relegate all household chores to them, including preparing meals for their husbands.
Lazy women even demand that their laundry be done by the housemaids.
It is not uncommon for bed-hopping employers to lie to their husbands that every guy they are caught with is a relative or the maid’s lover.
Uncultured children and men sometimes rape the maid to satisfy their sexual desires.
Some men even go to the extent of calling their friends over weekends to have a look at their maids or even bed them.
“Mazuvano kumba kwangu kwakauya chimwe chinestructure yekuruzevha. Chigood mwana,” you hear some men saying at the bar.
But not all employers are bad.
There are some maids who are worse than anything bad that can be imagined.
Such maids are dishonest and help themselves to anything their hands can lay on.
Some hit back at their abusive employers by posing for photos in their pricy costumes and running away with their husbands. Whenever maids are fed up, they can do anything.
They can spit in your food, use your toothbrush to clean the toilet and, worse still, expose young children to evil.
Gentle reader, being a maid is not a stroll in the park, but some maids are worse than a cocked gun. They can do anything.
Inotambika mughetto.
