Bella : The Zulu Upper-Housemaid
BELLA is the third daughter of Iida by his chief wife Masabere. " Bella " is not actually her name, which happens to be Ubuhlalu, or Jewel. It is an appropriate name, as she is a jewel of a domestic. Like myself, my wife is not Natal-born, and finds it sometimes difficult to pronounce these tongue-twisting Zulu names. Therefore, our natives are rechristened, or rather re- heathened, as none of ours are Christians (by religion). Ubuhlalu is now Bella, and has been for the past eight years.
Bella is sixteen. I know this as I remember the day she was born. Her mother was reaping maize in my fields about half an hour before the event, but had to stop work to give birth to her daughter. However, she was back in the fields a little after dawn the following morning to complete her unfinished task. Simple things, such as the birth of a child, very rarely interfere with the day's routine, particularly when the occupation is a pleasant one, and the pay is at the rate of eight bags-for one shilling for the husked ear. One can easily earn 8d. to 1s. per day, and by working hard for a week one can purchase a cotton blanket and a yard or two of coloured cotton fabric. It's a " soft job."
Bella stands five feet seven in her bare feet. Sheh as never possessed a pair of stockings or shoes, neither does she desire anything so superfluous. Her weight is 145 lb. She is what one may call well-developed for her age. Being sixteen, she is. mature and marriageable, and has been for two or three years. She is the belle of the district, and several young men are busily collecting the eleven head of cattle to offer to Iida in exchange for Bella. He is certain to accept. Bella will not be consulted ; neither shall I. Iida loves his daughter, but is well com- pensated with eleven head of cattle, valued at £66. Bella gains a husband and a but to herself. I have to find grazing for eleven head of cattle and lose the best upper- housemaid south of the Zambesi River. Thank goodness it has not happened yet, but I feel it coming: Bella can do most things except answer the telephone, read or write, talk English or Dutch, or understand a picture except when she holds it upside down. As a tiny naked girl she entered our service. She was eight years of age, verminous, smelt horribly of rancid goat-fat, and was very unhappy. The best part of a bottle of paraffin was rubbed over her woolly head. It took four hot baths to remove the goat-fat from her body. She was clean, and fit to wear " the one-piece suit " made of empty flour bags, and to take up her position as scullery-maid at a salary of 2s. ad. per thirty working days, plus all the maize-meal she could eat. Like all farm natives she had to work 180 days per annum. The work of the scullery maid on a Natal farm is not exclusively confined to washing up plates and dishes. This work takes only a few minutes four or five times daily. What would one do with the balance of the twelve to sixteen hours ? She rises a little before dawn, say four a.m. ; lights the kitchen fire ; feeds the 500 fowls and 300 ducks ; gathers fire- wood ; obtains three or four hags of rape from the fields, and when not otherwise employed weeds the kitchen garden. There are four acres of this, and in a fertile soil, hot climate, and a forty-inch rainfall weeds flourish. At about 8.30 p.m. she crawls beneath the kitchen-table, places her head on-a brick, pulls a blanket over her head, leaving her legs bare, and is free to sleep the deep sleep of the healthily tired.
To-day things are. different. In eight. years Bela has advanced in her profession. She now obtains two- pence per day, does not start. work until the sun is up, and has finished by 8 p.m. She is now first of our five maids to crawl beneath the kitchen table, gets first choice of the bricks for a pillow, and probably dreams of the young man who is collecting eleven head of cattle to offer her father. She possibly wonders what he is like.• -Has he any other wives Y What is the area and the fertility of his garden ? Has he goats and sheep besides cattle ? Does he live in the Location (Native Reserve) on a White man's farm ? Provided he is not a nonquai (policeman) and is not stout and fat, she will be satisfied. He's a man. She'll have a but to herself and lots of children. It's what she desires. Married women, too, on the. White man's farm are not called up to perform domestic service ; they work in the fields at odd times and get " big money" for it.
Bella is, among other things, my wife's maid, looks after all of her " kit," and washes and irons delicate apparel that could not possibly be ]landed over to the rough and ready laundry-maid in her " laundry "—the shale-bank down at the river. Silk and such like material does not stand the battering it would get on the bank. We are 65 miles from the nearest hair-dresser, and he is a busy sort of Dago who removes the short hairs by violent blasts from his Greco-Roman lungs. Bella, therefore, trims my wife's shingle.
She cleans the silver and brass ; knows the difference between " Brasso " and " Silvo " by the smell ; knows also the difference between plate-powder and " face- powder," although they are exactly the same colour, also by the smell. If there is any doubt about it she tastes things, and thus confirms her sense of smell. It's rather a bore not being able to read. Father forbids education ; he has seen too many boys and girls go to the towns (and dogs) through education.
Bella waits at table. It is a long time since I saw a white parlour-maid, but if white parlour-maids arc half so efficient as Bella they earn their £60 per annum. We frequently have twenty people to luncheon or dinner. It's all the same to Bella and her helpers. She neither complains nor is confused.
She feeds the dogs and is the best " ball-girl " on the tennis court I have ever seen. She gathers in the very early morning enough flowers from the garden to stock a florist's shop and arranges them in all the rooms, including the bed-rooms. With the help of the cook she cleans twenty-seven windows twice weekly. She weeds the flower garden, does the tennis court, and mows the grass of three lawns. She is perfectly happy, sings as she works and is always laughing. All for 30s. for six months, plus maize meal, one pound of sugar on Sunday morning and a pound of tough beef on Saturday night.
If she 'is a good girl she gets the usual 'bonus of 5s. and a cotton blanket at the end of her 180 days. For eight consecutive years Bella has had her " bonus." I remember her lying sixteen years ago in the fields, a tiny shrivelled monkey-like red baby, less than 24 hours old. I nearly trod upon her as she lay covered by a ragged blanket. Now she is a bronze coloured. perfect " NINTH T-00T."
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