If you never really acquiesced with this verse from the Good Book, then I think Mrs Caroline Akam's story should leave you entirely convinced of its veracity. Sometime in August, she came home and her 11 year old housemaid had not done the dishes. Impulsively and strangely, the befitting punishment for the little girl in Caroline's penal code was bathing with boiling water. The girl, fortunately, did not die from her burns. It would take more than that to kill her after the many episodes of battery she had suffered in the hands of her 'boss'.
Mrs Akam is only one of several other Nigerian women who recruit under-aged 'employees'. Traditionally, Nigeria is a country that thrives on child-labor. Almost every home has, at one time or the other, had house-girls or -boys. Sometimes, these maids are over the legal age of employment of 18. Most often, they are not. Nigeria has passed the practice of owning slaves from one generation to the next. Personally, I grew up having house-girls around. I can't even remember anytime when there was no maid living with us at home. I am sure most folks can relate with that. It was not essentially wrong, it was just African.
Poverty and illiteracy are Siamese twins. Most often than not, where one exists, the other is on the prowl somewhere in the vicinity. These two factors are blazing the trail as reasons why child labor remains an intrinsic African feature. Illiterate parents are likely, but not always, poor. Their offspring may get little or shoddy, if any, education and thus the vicious cycle of poverty continues unabated. There's a region of Nigeria particularly notorious for institutionalizing child labor as a culture. Every other week, they have their children shipped out to urban areas like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja as domestic helps. Benue, Cross River and Akwa Ibom incidentally also have the highest prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Coincidence?
Modern families in Nigeria understand there will never be paucity of house-helps so long poverty remains ubiquitous in the land. Thus the reason why many of them unleash terror on these unfortunate children. There are many women like Caroline Akam who specialize in dispensing blows on other peoples' children. They are quick to smack erring children for as much as spilling water from a filled bucket. They are quick to order them to 'stoop down' or 'pick pins' or 'ride bicycle' once a piece of meat misses from the cooking pot. They are quick to send these children on compulsory dry fasts as punishment for leaving heaps of clothes or dishes unwashed. They do all these in the presence of their own biological children and then take them to Sunday School on Sundays to be brought up in the way of the Lord.
They are children, you sick woman. They are not machines. They were not created as industrial dishwashers or washing machines by God. They are only products of a failed and failing society. Yes, they'll spill some water from a full bucket! Yes, they'll break some dishes! Yes, they'll get tired and leave some dishes unwashed promptly! That's what children do! Is that so hard to understand or you are just a sadist?
I find it extremely distasteful to subject another man's kid to things no parent would enjoy seeing his or her own biological kids subjected to. The Bible says 'Love your neighbor as yourself'. This is the ultimate commandment. In a society as religious as Nigeria, this commandment is the most flouted. If your kid will not enjoy sleeping on the kitchen tiles with a mat, it is very likely that the 11year old house-girl won't either. If your child won't enjoy eating her meal without a piece of meat or fish, then it is very likely the maid won't also. Most women would say, after-all I've paid for her services. So? That now means you should subject another human being to the most inhumane conditions?
I keenly observe couples coming to Church and outings with their kids and housemaids. Just by looking, you can spot the housemaid. Apart from the fact that she's usually the one looking sullen and subdued, she is also the one wearing rubber flip-flops and the old beat-up gown. She is usually the one with threaded weave on her head and walks behind all the biological kids. She has resigned herself to being inferior to the others. She unassumingly walks behind others. A sign that her self-esteem has been irrevocably damaged. That is what slavery does to a human being's self-esteem.
Its bad enough that these children are subjected to such psychological condescension, women like Mrs. Akam now inflict bruises, burns and lacerations on them. Like I said, Mrs Akam is one of many. That the others have not been caught and brought to justice just shows the moral aridity that pervades this failed society. To many women, it is now a semi-conscious thing. They ask whose fault it is that the maid's parents didn't 'hussle' to be able to provide quality education and the fine things of life for their kid. Incredibly, they teach their own biological kids how to look down on 'less human beings'. The kids imbibe this repugnant attitude as they see their parents as role models and these parents do not even realize what they are doing to their own kids. Then, we'll sit and wonder why Nigeria isn't getting better and fast and pray and beg God to heal Nigeria. Jokers!
I like the Yoruba language. It has many catchy and fancy adages. Salient messages and lessons encumbered in a few words. One of my favorite says 'Ba mi na omo mi, ko de inu olomo'. This translates to 'a parent that has asked his kid to be beaten for him, does not mean it literally'. No parent wants to sire professional dishwashers or floor-sweepers. No sane parent wants to have emotionally damaged kids. No parent wants their 11year old son or daughter bathed with hot boiling water. Why not put that in mind when you are abusing these kids. Time and chance happens to us all.
UNICEF hopes that by 2016, the worst forms of child labor would be eliminated. Tall dreams, if you ask me. The Nigeria I see today will remain like this for a very long time to come. One wonders how the modern Caucasian homes get by without house-girls and house-boys. They go to work too, don't they? They have kids also, don't they? Does the average Nigerian woman do more chores than her Caucasian mate? Does the average Nigerian home generate more laundry than its Caucasian counterpart? They somehow get by without resorting to under-aged domestic helps. It is a reflection of a literally working society...(not quite synonymous with BRF's working Lagos).
Truth remains that serious countries place stiff penalties on physical child abuse. They make it hard for you to batter your own biological child not to speak of another woman's child. While I am not advocating that parents be restricted from spanking THEIR own kids when they err, I earnestly seek a law that will abolish physically brutalizing a child who has been 'sold' to an adult illegally in the first place.
I am also asking that we as a Nation, begin to practice what we preach. Love your neighbor as yourself!
God did not make 'Maids'...He made human beings.
I really enjoyed reading your write up.good job!
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