Of maids and monsters

Glenda Simms, Contributor

History has recorded for us the period in which monsters, disguised as legitimate slave catchers and traders, corralled thousands of Africans (men, women and children) and forcibly transferred them to the so-called New World to become the prototypes for the most inhumane moment in the human story.

In slave society, black women's lives established the blueprint for the 'universal maid'. She learnt to smile while she scrubbed Missis' and Massa's floors and toilets; cooked their food with real pleasure and zeal and put up with the disrespect shown by the children of the great house. When the elders of the plantation passed on, it was these children who would inherit the slaves and the property, so the slaves had to be cautious.

The black 'slave gal' learnt her role and helped her daughters and sons to 'grin and bear it because Massa God would come to their rescue one of these days'.

On top of the back-breaking drudgery in the cane and cotton fields and in the 'big house', the black woman learnt to fear the nights when the monstrous backra massa entered her hut and raped her, her young daughters and her sons. On this issue she said two prayers to her gods. Unlike today, by no stretch of the imagination could the lawmakers of the period believe that the 'slave gal' engaged in consensual sex with the monster.

Over the many decades, the black woman prayed and strategised to overcome. Glimpses of her energy to overcome have been recorded in historical tracts, novels, and in the oral history of our people.

The most mistreated

In 1977, Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of An American Family was serialised as a television programme. It is in one of the dramatic episodes that the 'slave gal' Kizzy threw a glass of water into her Massa's "sorry face".

While it is a fact that other ethnic groups have been and continue to be enslaved, it is an established reality that black men and women have been the most mistreated and brutalised by plantation slavery.

It is, therefore, historical and poetic justice that in 2011 two black maids took a stance against two high-profile monsters whose attitudes are firmly rooted in and informed by the mentality of the slave plantation.

The first black maid is the prototype of the 'slave gal' who was forced from her ancestral roots to find a better life in the New World.

According to the Harriett Alexander, et al report in the May 29, 2011 edition of the Telegraph, it is a 32-year-old Guinean chambermaid who has accused the former powerful head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of gross sexual abuse and rape.

When the Telegraph news team visited the "dusty Guinean village" from which the young woman came, they heard stories of a polite, pious, respectable and decent Fulani woman, steeped in the values and world views of her Muslim family.

Like most poor women globally, she sought opportunities by relocating to North America. This search landed her in New York City, where she was fortunate enough to find work as a maid in the prestigious and exclusive Sofitel Hotel.

It is reported that this Guinean maid entered the US$3,000-per-night penthouse suite occupied by Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She alleged that she was raped. Mr Strauss-Kahn, who was paid US$420,000 per year for his powerful job, had the wherewithal to purchase the services of the most high-profile sex workers and escorts in the upscale whorehouses of Manhattan. Instead, his proclivity to continue the dehumanisation of the black woman caused him to put his career on the line. Mr Strauss-Kahn obviously made the conscious choice to sexually abuse the black hotel maid, if her story is to be believed.

This 'powerful' white man, like his male ancestors, found it easy to change from his shining armour to his monster suit. In this apparition, he demonstrated that, for men like him, the black slave gal is alive, well and available for mistreatment and sexual abuse! To him, she is not a sexual symbol. She is merely an object of scorn - less than human.

It is within this same mindset that a prominent 74-year-old former Egyptian bank chairman, Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, allegedly sexually assaulted a 44-year-old black maid in New York City's Pierre Hotel. The fact that this incident happened so soon after the globally publicised IMF scandal is instructive. It is a clear indication that the power-driven monsters have no regard for a certain stratum of women. They are unstoppable.

Take a legal stand

It is indeed time for us to recognise the strong legal framework in New York and other parts of the USA. It is in this legal framework that black maids can find courage to stand up to the ultimate patriarch.

Every woman should take an interest in these two cases. Each of us must continue to invest our energies in the search for equality, justice and empowerment of every woman in every society.

This year of our Lord, 2011, has turned out to be a historical high point for the ongoing struggle of the global 'maid class' to gain a sense of justice in an unequal and unjust world.

Data based on national statistics collated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) inform us that there are 52.6 million domestic workers (maids) worldwide. Within this reality, every woman must recognise the leadership of Juan Somavia, the director general, under whose guidance the ILO recently passed the landmark treaty giving protection to the estimated 52.6 million domestic workers across the world.

While this has been a long time in coming, those of us who struggle for gender justice and equality have been aware that the ILO affirms that "all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity of economic security and equal opportunity".

In light of the fact that Jamaica is a society of domestic workers and maids, we fully anticipate the ratification and incorporation into our domestic laws of this latest ILO convention by the Government of Jamaica.

In fact, in Jamaica, we need to be constantly reminded that many of us are either contemporary maids (with or without cap and apron), descended from maids over generations, and the others of us are perilously dependent on our maids.

Many of us can relate to the intriguing stories captured in Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel, The Help. In this moving and powerful description of black women's lives during the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, USA, we are reacquainted with "black women who were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver".

It is the spirit of all our black female ancestors that will continue to give us the courage to value children over silverware and other material goods. It is this courage that fuelled the fighting spirit of two black maids who confronted the collective unconscious of two monsters in the upper-crust hotel rooms of New York City. When such monsters are locked up, somebody needs to lose the prison keys! For me, this would be the best outcome of the United Nations International Year of Peoples of African Origin.

Glenda P. Simms, PhD, is a gender expert and consultant. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.