Victoria Meme prepares a meal at Lang'ata estate in Nairobi on September 13, 2024. She has been a house help in the same homestead for 50 years.
On October 21, 1974, a young woman arrived at a plush Nairobi home determined to secure her financial freedom by working as a house help.
Victoria Meme, who was 23 years old, had earlier defied her parents at a village in Kilungu in present-day Makueni County. They were strongly opposed to the idea of their first-born child working in the “dangerous” city.
But not only did she learn to navigate the rough-and-tumble of city life in short order but is now marking the milestone of working for the family of celebrated African literature icon David Maillu for the last 50 years uninterrupted.
"Around this time next month (October), I shall have clocked 50 years as a house help in this home. I came here as a girl. I am now a mother and grandmother. It is such a big honour," Ms Meme told Nation.Africa at Maillu’s home in Nairobi's Lang'ata Estate.
The 73-year-old mother of three adult children says she looks back with pride at the 50 years she has worked for the Maillus. She has always rejected the label associated with house helps as being the lowest of the low.
"I have no problem identifying as a house maid. Everybody knows what I do for a living. I am satisfied with this job because it has enabled me to raise my children. I feel comfortable here in the company of Mr Maillu, who I consider a brother. He really makes me happy. Since I started staying here, Mr Maillu or anybody else in the family have never said a harsh word to me," she says.
Celebrated author David Maillu during an interview at his home in Ngei Estate in Nairobi on March 13, 2024.
Mr Maillu, a prolific author and publisher, has at least 60 books to his name since 1972. Some of his popular titles include Unfit for Human Consumption, My Dear Bottle, After 4.30, The Kommon Man, Broken Drum, Black Madonna and Crossing the Red Line. In a previous interview, he said he expresses himself through writing, painting and singing.
Ms Meme singles out Mr Maillu's late wife, Hannelore Maillu, a German who had arrived in Kenya in 1967 to support an evangelism mission, as her biggest pillar of strength for years.
"Whenever I had a problem Madam would offer solace. She would say, 'Victoria don't lose hope. I am here for you'. She had told me to raise (Elizabeth) Kavuli (the Maillus daughter) the way I would raise my children. One day as I served her water at the living room, she told me I should not forget to serve Dad (Mr Maillu) food. I did not know she was saying goodbye," she says tearfully about the death of Mrs Maillu in 2020.
Ms Meme adds: "She still comes to my dreams. She sincerely loved me".
A neat living room filled with bookshelves and flower vases competing for space with carvings is the clearest indication that Ms Meme took seriously Mrs Maillu's last instructions on taking care of the house.
Happy day. Hannelore Maillu, and writer David Maillu, on the day of their wedding on January 30, 1970 in Nairobi.
Ms Meme operates from a rented house at the edges of Kibra from where she walks to her workplace daily. She gets out of bed at 5 am and does not sleep until after 9 pm.
Her routine revolves around cleaning the house, watering flowers, washing clothes, shopping for foodstuff, running small errands and preparing meals for the family and visitors. This has not always been the routine. Initially, her main duty was baby-sitting Mr Maillu's daughter, Elizabeth Kavuli, since the household had a male cook.
Victoria Meme has been a house help in the same homestead for 50 years.
"In 1982 Mr Maillu transferred the cook to the countryside after Madam said I could do all the domestic chores," says Ms Meme, recalling her "promotion". She quickly learnt how to bake and operate a laundry machine among other chores.
Ms Meme often glows with pride whenever a neighbour lauds her for raising the girl well. Teaching Kavuli to speak and write in fluent Kikamba as her father wanted has been one of Ms Meme's biggest achievements. According to Mr Maillu — the self-proclaimed president of African spirituality and professor of African values who has not missed an opportunity to promote African culture — using vernacular languages is the epitome of emancipation from colonialism and mental slavery.
"Her father (Mr Maillu) insisted that she should learn Kikamba. He only allowed the doting daughter to speak in English with her mother. She enjoyed the language lessons and before long she spoke in fluent Kikamba just like the father wanted," Ms Meme says of Kavuli.
Ms Meme dropped out of Standard Seven after her parents were unable to take her to secondary school. In between, she taught at a local Sunday school before she got married. To eke a living, she approached an uncle who took her to his place in Nairobi where she worked as a house help for two years before securing the current job with the Maillus.
After delivering her first child in 1975 she was pleasantly surprised after Mr Maillu offered her a paid maternity leave. He also came through after noticing the toll that her rocky marriage was having on her finances. After giving birth to her third child, Ms Meme says her marital problems got worse.
Apart from supporting her children through school and college, Ms Meme has set up a modest home on a piece of land in the Joska area on the edges of Nairobi and Machakos counties, which Mr Maillu and his wife gave her in 2015 as a way of appreciating her services. The staunch Catholic does not miss an opportunity to advise house helps on how they should relate with their bosses.
"Today, greed is the main reason many house maids lose their jobs. Also, whenever they are hired in a homestead like this one, they lack respect especially to the woman of the house because they think they are equals. They should be respectful and take care of the homestead," she says.
That notwithstanding, Ms Meme has over the years been battling rumours from some neighbours that she is more than a house help to Mr Maillu. The rumours intensified after Mr Maillu's wife passed on four years ago.
Victoria Meme has been a house help in the same homestead for 50 years.
But she dismisses suggestions of a romantic relationship with someone she considers a “brother” and “father figure”.
"If I had disrespected Mama (Mrs Maillu), I would not have stayed here for all these years," she said.
The author is more amused than upset by what he calls “baseless” rumours.
"I know where the rumours are coming from. Those peddling them are saying so because it is unthinkable for them to maintain a house help for that long," he says.
He praises Ms Meme as an organised person who is highly disciplined.
"She has created a conducive atmosphere for me to work from home," he says.
Mr Maillu explains that Ms Meme stands out among his workers.
"She is not the first house help who has stayed for many years. I had one who worked for my mother — she lasted for 15 years. It takes a lot of understanding to stay with a house help for many years, but the benefits are rewarding. You build trust over time such that you are not worried about leaving the entire house in their hands. This enables you to focus on other more important things. The trust created by Ms Meme's presence in our family has created the conducive environment I needed to write books and poems."
After living for all these years working for a prominent author, Nation.Africa asks Ms Meme how many of Mr Maillu’s books she has read. Her immediate reaction is a hearty laugh.
"I read only two of them a long time ago. One was a small booklet titled ‘Unfit for Human Consumption’ and Kikyambonie, a collection of Kikamba poems. All I can remember is that the books are full of good advice," she says, adding that she would also often listen to Mr Maillu on the Voice of Kenya (now Kenya Broadcasting Corporation).
So, after 50 years of working in the same household, is it time to retire?
“It is Mr Maillu and his daughter, Kavuli, who will determine when I should go,” she says.
