Servants - 1

From birth I was quite used to having household servants around me and, often, very close to me; and later Mrs MW and I employed servants ourselves. In my younger years my relationships with them varied hugely, and changed with time; and they influenced me tremendously. So, for example, the young woman in this photograph ensured that I spoke KiSwahili as well as I spoke English.

Fatuma was engaged as my 'ayah' shortly before I was born in Dar-es-Salaam in January 1945. Her job was to look after me through most of the day. My parents placed considerable trust in her, including allowing her to take me down to the nearby beach to meet the other local ayahs with their charges. Fatuma also looked after Richard when he was born, and stayed with us until 1950 when we moved to Mombasa. There were other servants at the big Upanga Road bungalow and at the new house at Oyster Bay but I don't remember them and my mother doesn't mention them in her 'Life'.

I know we had two servants in our first house in Mombasa, a cook - whom my mother sacked when he made a mess of Christmas lunch because he was drunk - and Ouma (left), who started as our house boy but persuaded my mother to train him as our cook - which she did, with great success.

Early on, I think Richard and I must have been a considerable nuisances to 'the boys' who worked for us. For example, I remember using my catapult to lob stones into the soup Ouma was cooking for dinner which, inevitably, came to my mother's attention and caused me to be given a severe dressing down as well as an explanation of how important, how invaluable they were to us - my mother couldn't go out to work without them.

They did more than cook and clean and wash and iron and look after the garden. I vividly remember Richard and I being left in Ouma's charge when my parents went out for an evening. He cooked and fed us supper, put us to bed, and kept an eye on us until our parent came home, often in the early hours of the morning. I don't know what modern society would make of two small boys being cared for by a man with filed teeth and scars across his cheeks - but my parents obviously trusted him absolutely.