The Arabian Slave Girl

CHAPTER ONE "Susan, Ali will be coming to your room tonight. Make sure he is happy by the time he leaves. Let me not hear any drama this time around. Hope you are git me perfectly well." Baba issued the directives to me with a King's authority in his voice. Madam, Baba's wife critically toured my entire body with her eyes as if to make sure I had precisely taken the instructions just issued by her husband. "Spread your legs apart you b***h or I will strangle you," Came Baba's commanding voice that I had by now gotten used to. My hands were tied with a sisal rope and fastened to the head side of the giant wooden bed. My clothes were stripped off save for an undergarment that had also been pulled aside to reveal the side of my womanhood. Ali was racing from one side of the small servant room to another while completely naked and sweating as he had just left a sauna. He muttered words that sounded weird to me but seemed like he was protesting against my obstinacy against letting him have his way with ease. Madam, Ali's mother stood by the door as if to make sure I did not escape. She was hoping for a lubrication tube that was always used while aiding their lunatic son to r**e me. Such nights had always been a nightmare for me. Ali was an epileptic lunatic son of this family. He had a mental breakdown following a relationship heartbreak as a teenager and has never looked back since then. He is now aged between 30 and 35 and has never been married let alone have children of his own. Sometimes he gets so wild and attacks anybody that gets in his way, including hurting himself at times. In circumstances like these, it's lovemaking that calms him down. Many girls had been hired to take care of him but none lived beyond one month. I fought and fought until I had no more energy to go on. I watched Ali dangle his insanely giant manhood towards my helpless body and wished I could die. His mother reached towards me and sprinkled some drops of the lubrication she was carrying, enough for her son to have a seamless pleasure with their victim. Ali forced himself on me as his shameless father and mother aided him by pulling my legs apart. He had an unbearably big manhood that not even the artificial lubrication improvised by her mother could avert the pain. After a long rough ride, Ali shook uncontrollably and breathed profusely as a man who was possessed. He then climbed off his motionless victim and, supported by his father, left my room. His mother, madam as we usually referred to her, stayed for a little longer, standing just at the doorway looking at me critically without saying a word. She seemed to feel sympathy for me but had nothing to do after all, it was her son's demon they were feeding. She wiped something that looked like a tear from his face with the edge of her nightgown and left, switching the light off behind her. This was not the first time this was happening. On the very day I was brought here from the slave market where slave girls are auctioned like animals, I was dosed and tied to the bed and r***d. We arrived with Baba at about 7 p.m. and went to bed immediately after having supper and showering. There was another black servant who I learned that night that she was called Hannah. At first, I thought it was a dream for I was only semi-conscious. When I woke up, I could feel pain inside my genitals the joints between the palm and the arm where I had been tied and the foot joints. The following morning, Hannah came to me and expressed concern that I didn't look well. To her, something terrible must have happened to me. Although she had not witnessed anything that night, she certainly knew something had been done. It was then that I learned that she was from Kenya, our Ugandan neighbours to the East. Her English wasn't that good as she principally communicated in Swahili. She was also fluent in Arabic, that's what I thought, maybe it's because I didn't know the language yet. This suggested that she had been in Audi Arabia long enough entire me who was here for my first job in the country. Because she was accommodating and free, I felt she was someone I could trust with my secret. I explained to her how I was feeling and she came closer to examine me. Upon taking a close look, she gaped and opened her eyes wide, although her face remained relaxed. " This is Ali. Ali visited you last night. He did this to you." He did what? Tell me. Who is Ali and what did he do to me? Judging by the look of her eyes, I knew the worst had happened. The worst nightmare for any woman. A certain scumbag had disgraced me. Who could it be? Baba? No. It can not be. Baba is an old man supposedly in his early 70s or so. Besides, he looked so responsible and kind to do such a heinous thing against someone who qualifies to be his grandchild. Who then could that person be, I hadn't seen anyone else apart from madam, Baba and Hannah who was here confirming the worst news of my life to me. " Ali is the only child of this family. He is a lunatic and only gets out of his room when he is going to sleep with someone." Hannah broke the silence at least. Her words pierced my already frightened heart like a knife. I had heard of all sorts of bad things that could happen while in Saudi Arabia but r****g me on my first night was the last thing I had expected. " He is a darling of his parents. They have tried everything to heal him but his situation just keeps getting worse. They have been hiring girls to look after him but in the actual sense, they are brought in to satisfy his devil. When he takes too long without sleeping with someone, he becomes violent. He has even attempted to r**e his mother more than once." Have you ever been molested by him as well? I asked her but she just smiled and didn't say a word. I remembered what Baba had told me while at the auction. He told me there wouldn't be much work at the house since there were only two grownups besides him. He also talked of another maidservant who would soon be leaving following the end of her contract. Was I going to be here as a s*x toy of someone's lunatic son forever? No, it won't be. " Just know you have entered the cage and there is no way out. I have spent two painful years doing just what you have been brought to do. Now he is tired of me. I no longer satisfy him and that's why they have had to hire a new person." Hannah assured me, multiplying my fears tenfold. No. That won't happen with me. I won't allow anybody to use me like that. I am a human being with the right to choose who I make love with. Besides, I am not here for lovemaking. If they don't have other things to do then, I will ask them to send me back to the office. That's what I will tell them. " You think it's that easy? I would be in Kenya for two years now if it were so simple as you seem to think." Hannah emphasised dismissing my determination to fight the same aggression she has endured for two years now. That day, we spent it together with Hannah, helping her with the chores here and there. She knew she was heading out soon and I would be doing the work she has done for the last two years. Including feeding Ali's devil. The pay here was exceedingly more than the average maids received for doing similar errands. Besides, the workload was relatively less. This could partly be the reason why Hannah had stayed here for a whole two years, enduring the dehumanising s****l slavery. Do you have children back in Kenya? I asked as I helped her stack more clothes in the washing machine. She paused for a while before finally responding. " I don't have any, I may say. Not that I have never produced. She rolled her big eyes, as white as a piece of paper, and looked into the skies trying to avoid eye contact with me. When she looked down, her eyes were red and I could sense that she was feeling pain. A pain I didn't know where it came from. She grabbed a bunch of bedsits from the washing machine and dropped them at the ironing table. She didn't speak for a while, and neither did I. I was scared any more questions would evoke more pain in her. I didn't want to spoil the day beyond what I had already done. We continued doing our work in silence for a while. I cleaned the washing lounge as she ironed the clothes. After making sure everything was tidy enough, I approached the ironing table grabbed the flat iron and started ironing as she piled the load together and took it away to where I didn't know at the time. Her eyes had been red all along. When she returned once after delivering the ironed clothes, her cheeks were wet. She had been crying. This spectacle was so frightening for me. She must have endured a lot in this house, a lot more than she has shared with anyone, let alone me who is in the same boat with her now. I knew I would soon find out even if she didn't wish to tell me. I would find out the dark secrets of this house on my own. " I had a baby girl when I left Kakamega to come here. Her name was pretty. She finally broke the silence. I had never heard the word Kakamega before but I certainly knew it must be a place in Kenya. I listened attentively for I never wanted to interrupt her lest I divert her willingness to feed me with the information I badly needed at this time. " She was called Pretty and she was the prettiest thing I have ever seen." Her eyes dilated and lit up. She dearly loved this girl and anybody would feel it. " I became pregnant while still in secondary school. My parents were very bitter with me. I was their only girl and my father had vowed to do all it would take to see me through school. He was not a man of good means financially but he would do anything for his children's education. When I conceived, he was honestly broken and took to heavy drinking. I had become a disappointment to my family. When Tom-my boyfriend, learned of my pregnancy, he fled and I never heard from him again. My father had threatened to lock him up and he was scared. We were both teenagers, just kids." Her daughter had died while still here. The bosses here never allow maids to have mobile phones. They are only allowed to communicate at home once every month and under close supervision. They, perhaps, feared that their dark secrets would be reported to cause them trouble. Hannah only learned of her daughter's death after nearly two months. She had contracted malaria and her mother, who lived with poor Pretty, couldn't respond in time to save her because she didn't have the money for the hospital. She desperately tried local herbs but they didn't do much to help as she only grew weaker. They had persistently tried to reach out to Hannah to inform her of her baby girl's struggles with no success. Baba and his wife, on whose phone they used to get her had travelled to Dubai and didn't return until two months later. By the time Pretty was delivered to the nearby clinic, it was too late. She was pronounced dead and was buried without her mother's knowledge. She had endured all this pain. Maybe that's why she didn't strive so much to return home because her most precious treasure had gone. She considered herself more dead than alive. Yet what surprised me about her is that she remained very positive. She had a contagious smile that made her even more attractive. She was a beauty despite her dark complexion. Her large eyes and snow-white teeth with a beautiful gap in between exacerbated her already attractive looks. " The Bible says that everything happens for a reason and there is time for everything. Maybe something worse could have happened to you if you hadn't left your country. Maybe God is preparing you for something greater through this test. We should never question God's judgement. Maybe this is the way he answered Ali's prayers of having some joy." Was she referring to her being r***d by a lunatic as being God's plan! Was she serious? Hannah had a personality I had never seen before. With all the hell she had been through, she still never harboured any grudges with anyone. She always wished the best for everyone including her adversaries who had mistreated her all these years. She prayed for Ali every night and said it was not his fault that he r***d her. She wanted God to heal him and get a new life have a wife and have his children. She is an Angel. The only one that lives among humans on earth. That's what I thought of her. Nonetheless, I was not going to take this route, however much she tried to convince me. My principle is ' an eye for an eye' and for molesting me, Ali deserved to die. That's what I wished him and nothing less. I was also determined to fight for my rights and leave this house as soon as possible. I only wanted to wait for Baba to come back from work and ask them to buy me a phone and a SIM card so I could knit a strategy that would send me back to the office so I could get a new house, or, at the very extreme, return to my country. CHAPTER THREE It wasn't until we landed at the airport that I believed I wasn't dreaming. It was a two-day flight. We left Entebbe Airport on Friday and landed in Saudi Arabia at King Fahad International Airport on a Sunday. The wonderful spectacle of the Airport symbolised the coming to reality of all my dreams. The beauty of this great country with white people all over reminded me of the life I envisaged for myself and my people. I immediately set targets for myself which would start with constructing a house for my mother and renovating my late father's grave. I also planned to send my son only to the best schools in the country so he could become a Member of Parliament in future. It was at the airport that I learned that the cheap labour trade wasn't only in Uganda. Girls were brought from all over Africa. Besides the six of us from Uganda, there were about fifteen others, some only identical to us by their colours as they rarely spoke a word in English or any other language I could understand. Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, everywhere on the black continent. We hardly spoke anything almost as the van chauffeured us to our next unknown destination. The anxiety of a new life in a new land had taken the better of us. As for me, I was thinking about how my little Angel would be doing for the two years I was to be away. I felt sorry for him for the poverty of my family had condemned him to a motherless life at a time when every child needed their mother by their side. "He should feel lucky he will not have to suffer like his mother did. He will live in riches from now on. He will attend the best schools in the country and dress in the best outfits. He will not suffer from malnutrition like most of the children in the village," some voice spoke inside me, forcing a big smile on my cheeks. I hadn't slept since learning of my planned travel. That's about three days of sleeplessness. I had been told of stories of girls getting lost inside the plane while sleeping. I didn't want to be one of them so, I did everything to ensure I would be awake up to the time of boarding off. Naturally, I was feeling tired and sleepy. Before long, I was snoring, only to be woken up after arriving at the office in Riyadh- the city of my dreams as I had been told about it by the girls at the Hostel who had been here before. Here, I was informed, we were to stay until when each one of us got a house to stay in with someone to take us in as the house helps. At the office, I met the most embarrassing part of my life. There were several girls from different t nationalities, including those with white skins from Indonesia, the Philippines, Eritrea, and Djibouti, among others. Every other day, we would be paraded by the office administrators who I later learnt had paid our recruiters back home and we were exclusively their merchandise. Clients, as our prospective buyers were called, would come and inspect us as one does when buying a donkey from an animal market. At times, we were asked to undress so that the client could establish whether they had any visible body scars that could impede working efficiency. You were also asked to open your mouth to make sure you had all the teeth to command a good price for the seller. It was a slave labour market without any doubt. Even though being auctioned like a useless auction was detestable, staying at this office more. Girls longed to leave and would get eaten up by anxiety each time a prospective buyer appeared. The meals were beyond what you would call substandard let alone enough to satisfy an adult. We were so overcrowded that one would mistake our accommodation facilities for a chicken house. Oftentimes, girls contract poor hygiene-related complications from here. Girls with white skins such as those from the Philippines, Morocco, Somalia, Eritrea, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan, among others, commanded a superior cost price as compared to their black counterparts. Muslims also sold out quicker than non-Muslims. What I would learn later also was that different nationalities are paid varying wages, with mine attracting the least, just a little over $200 a month. The disparity is due to the negotiations between the slave host government and source government where others, it's said, negotiators a lower pay for their slave labour supply in exchange for some concessions, both fiduciary and non fiduciary. At the time of my arrival, there were close to a hundred girls, but thereafter, the number kept fluctuating due to new arrivals and departures reported every day. For about a week, I met a friend with whom I bonded closely and shared a lot. Her name was Hasifah and she was from the same region as me back in Uganda. Unlike me who had been out of school for a long time and was already a mother of two, Hasifah was comparatively younger but mature by both reasoning and conduct. She left her country because her parents couldn't afford the cost of furthering her education beyond high school. She wanted to save enough to continue her education and this insatiable quest for knowledge landed her here, a place she wasn't so sure she would leave alive. She took me through what was expected of me should someone come for me. She strictly warned me against getting into romantic relationships with anyone for it would be inviting death upon oneself. " The first thing you should know is that your private parts will have to be locked for your entire contract period. If you open it, even once, you should be prepared to return home inside a bodyguard." She said once with with grim expression. " Susan, who is Susan among you?" Here I am Madam. " Park all your belongings, your boss is here to take you." A giant female administrator at this office came commanding in a voice that was less masculine than feminine. She stood by the entrance to the residence hall to make sure I acted upon the instructions she had issued earlier without any delay. I loathed this place so badly, and so did any of the other residents, yet when the time came to leave, I felt bad. I had only been here for three days. Some of the girls told me they had been here for up to six months with no one coming to pick them. They would be assembled and shuffled like tomatoes each time a client came but were unlucky. Psychologically, my mind had been prepared for a longer stay, so this came as a surprise. Besides, I didn't feel I was ready to part ways with Hasifah just yet. In the few days we had been here, she had taught me a lot to prepare me for the scary adventure ahead. She made so complex things seem so simple yet appeared so young and innocent. " You are taking too long and your boss is becoming impatient. Park the rest of the things as they are, you will tidy them up once you reach," the Administrator who had all along been standing there like a Prison Warder commanded again. Hasifah stealthily folded a small piece of paper and squeezed it into my hand as she grabbed one of my bags to accompany me to my waiting new buyer. Without saying a word or examining the components of the piece of paper Hasifah had smuggled into my hand, I sneaked it into the pocket and left. My boss, the man who would form part of my pain for the next two years was quite of advanced age and what I found surprising about him was the comfort with which he spoke English. Hasifah had scared me to death when she told me I could land in a family where they barely speak a language I understand. " Is this your first time in Saudi Arabia?" These were the first words from his mouth to which I nodded in the affirmative. " I hope you will not be a bad girl. Then we shall also be good to you. There isn't too much work to do at home, and there are not so many people. Only about four, me, Madam, and another maid." He didn't say anything thereafter until the car parked at my new home. Baba asked me to surrender my cell phone which I did without questioning his motive. CHAPTER FOUR Baba and Madam didn't come home the day after my arrival. We stayed the two of us, Hannah, and Ali who didn't leave his room, (and I didn't care anyway). All this while, I anxiously waited for them to return so I could demand my cell phone to be handed back to me so I could knit a strategy to escape the conundrum I found myself in all of a sudden. Hannah persistently tried to dissuade me in my plans to escape, revealing that like me, she had tried so much to escape but she only had to give up after our bosses strategically made life so hard that she was left with no option but to give in. Hannah prepared food that day and took it to Ali's room before we could have ours. " He has been bleeding a lot. He bit his upper lip and he also has a deep cut on the forehead. He has refused to eat the food." I overheard her speaking on the phone to someone I sensed was Baba or Madam. We did most of the work together before I retired to my bed to console myself over what had happened the previous night. I tried to invite them to sleep but nine came. I recalled the beautiful speech the big-bellied politician back home used to convince our poor, unsuspecting parents to surrender their precious daughters to be sold into this kind of dehumanising slavery. I suddenly remembered my sister who had cried inconsolably after she failed to make it through the rigorous medical examinations. She believed the door that had presented itself for me was a sure way for me to make it in life, and I also did, anyway. I then thought about my children, the fruits of my youth, whom I had left behind, denying them the luxury of motherly love just because I wanted to fend for them. Then, my eyes started welling up at the thought of Patrick- the man I had given my heart and trusted with all my life, the father of my children. He is the first man I have truly fallen in love with. We were both in secondary school as he was two classes above me, and two years older as well, at nineteen while I was seventeen. He was the most handsome man whom every girl wished to be friends with, at least, if they couldn't have him for love. He was kind too and also smart, both physically and mentally. Unfortunately, despite his intelligence in class, his parents were not well positioned financially to see him complete high school and hence as a result dropped out to set up a retail shop after a bumper rice harvest. I got intimate with Patrick just once and started feeling uneasy weeks later which was confirmed that I was pregnant. When I talked about it, he assured me he was ready for the consequences. He suggested that we move in and I gladly accepted because, like I said earlier, he was the only man that I truly loved. Only about six months into our marriage, we welcomed our first bundle of joy in q bouncing baby boy- Edmund and followed him with another one in quick succession- Only a little over fourteen months later to got Edmund's younger brother- Edgar. Meanwhile, things were not getting any better in our marital union. Patrick didn't have a stable source of income as his retail business had already collapsed. One day, Patrick, who had been visibly disturbed parked his bag and told he was going on a work trip where he expected to stay longer. He had spent days barely saying a word and since I knew his financial troubles, I never bothered to seek explanations. However, days grew into weeks, months and a year without ever hearing from him again. The boys were two and one year consecutively at the time their father left them. Living deep in the village, with no source of income whatsoever and still struggling to have my family heal from the disappointment of eloping with Patrick when they struggled to keep me in school, describing g that life as hell would be an understatement. That's when Father sent for me to enrol in a money-making arrangement an area Member of Parliament had told them he had lobbied during a burial ceremony. My mother offered to take care of the boys while I looked for money. For a year and some months now, I haven't heard from Patrick again. I was only told by one boy we went to the same school with, and was Patrick's close friend that he had seen him in the city but he didn't seem to be doing well according to him. Reminiscing about those ugly events in my life opened a lot of wounds something I never wanted to do. I realised that the pillow upon which I rested my head was soaked in tears. Gradually, a soft slumber overpowered me and before long, I snoring. .................................................................. I woke up to some unusual situation that pointed to a possible catastrophe in the House. Both Baba and his wife were home but the racing from one place to another indicated that there was some sort of trouble. " Park everything for him and make sure is cleaned up as the Ambulance will be here soon." Baba was commanding Hannah. Meanwhile, Madam was sobbing without making a sound. I felt confused for Hannah, the only companion I had in this house who could update me on what was going on seemed too occupied to even have a single word with me. I chanced upon Hannah as she hurriedly carried a bag she had just parked and wanted to ask her but before I could, Baba appeared and she sped off. Before I could precisely learn what exactly was going on, an Ambulance serene sound outside was heard, further adding to my confusion that it attempted to resolve it. The occupants of the Ambulance rushed to the House and my shock, they returned with someone being stretchered. My understanding, instantly told me this must be Ali since I had already heard Hannah explaining his condition to someone on the phone during the day, and I was right. Ali was stretched away to the waiting Ambulance which was already in ignition. He was carried to the Hospital and his mother accompanied him alongside Hannah and Baba who, however, never slept at the Hospital but spent the day with them for the entire two-week period Ali spent at the treatment table.