Where does the deplorable culture of having housemaids despite being poor come from?

[Fobnimo Till I Dhimo]

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[Yaraye]

I've never seen poor people have a maid. What you talking about?

 

[Fobnimo Till I Dhimo]

I've never seen poor people have a maid. What you talking about?

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[Khaem]

We had one when i lived in Djibouti. But tbf it was a very large house we were renting during our stay there. I was the oldest sibling and only 11 12~ so we couldn't possible keep it all clean. If I lived in a 1-2 story house I wouldn't have a maid at all. It's not the norm for my extended family too and I've stayed at many houses in Djibouti.

 

[Hilmaam]

lol money from west go long ways

 

[Midas]

Nah the only people who have maids in somalia are diaspora or wealthy. Even my family members back home never had a maid. Maybe 5 % of famlies have a maid.

 

[berberaboy66]

It’s more so a big-city thing. I don’t know when they started paying these maids though what happened to just having live-in ones???

 

[Idilinaa]

When i was in Egypt our extended family that live there had a Maid, and she would come by at around noon help my aunt with cooking and cleaning and leave.

So i am assuming they are treated like an extra hand. I don't really see it as adoonsi replacement, i see it as a pathway for employment opportunities for those who have less, so that they can earn money.

Among Arabs it's treated differently, maids are not a helping hand or path of some employment scheme , it really is a replacement for adoonsi.

 

[Ducaalee]

It's usually well off people or rich diasporas who have galla housemaids

 

[Kamaaludeen Al Reewin]

It's basically poor people using even poorer people to be housemaids for them

 

[Sa_Male]

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Pride

 

[The Oponian Guild]

I can own a destitute Amhara for 20 dollars a month, nolol rafaad back home and africa in general, people will do anything to get by

 

[roses4me]

I remember my maid, she pretended to be my long distance cousin and forced me n my sisters to help her clean our entire vacation...only when i left did i find out she was the goddamn MAID

 

[killerxsmoke]

Nah the only people who have maids in somalia are diaspora or wealthy. Even my family members back home never had a maid. Maybe 5 % of famlies have a maid.

Technically it ain't a maid it's just a distance relative doing the work

 

[Burqad]

it’s usually a way of giving a cousin a job, they don’t do much work and our maids would gossip and watch Indian movies with my mom and sisters.

 

[Rayaale]

Bruh not all Somalis back home have a maid stop generalizing

 

[Angelina]

Stop being silly. It’s mostly the upper middle classes. The average Somali wife has like 7 kids and a house bigger than the UK box houses with no man to help her. If she has the extra coins, of course it makes sense for her to get a bit of help.

Also, no those women aren’t just sitting around since they have lots of kids to keep them occupied.

Always find it funny seeing men complain about maids because the reason why is because the maid in their minds should be the wife. Somali men back home don’t help at all. They just get her pregnant and will be out of the house all day even if unemployed or aren’t working long hours. No man would comment about a bachelor man having a cleaner come in a few times a week despite being single but a mother of 7 having help is an issue because you see wives as maids who also gives birth to your kids.

Furthermore, a lot of the maids tend to be relatives who are treated well and part of the family. To add, every single society in the East it’s normal to have one and it was normal to have one whilst one parents were growing up.


So I’d say, stop trying to make a mole out of a mountain. All of this talk of ‘laziness’ coming from a man from a culture that expects women to wake up at the crack of dawn whilst the men sleep and are served hand and foot.

 

[Aseer]

Nothing wrong with it. It creates jobs.

 

[Basra]

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I will never blame someone who highers someone for a job

but the thing - the house wife- what does she do with her free time? Get a business which i think most somali women do. Naag nool

 

[Riftvalley]

A lot of times maids are from minority clans, orphans or girls who ran away from their families or what have you. Sexual abuse by maids against boys and vice versa is common in Somalia.

I get the reasoning behind it though. A family of ten kids in Somalia normally has other relatives staying with them to study and there are a constant stream of visitors. Maids are cheap way to get help and the families are often doing the maid a favour in giving them a little income. I’d rather they work as maids than turn to other illicit sources of income.