Maid in SA

It’s a scene most South Africans are familiar with; something that adds that oomph to your social status as a South African woman. This is a laugh-out-loud take on a woman’s home, but is as serious as the security guards in gated communities. It is a quirky look at the women in our lives; our mothers, our sisters, our cousins, our friends, us. It’s the relationship between maids and their madams.

Maid In South Africa takes a lighter look at one of South Africa’s most important yet most often overlooked relationships of all: that between a domestic worker and her madam. Seen from both perspectives, the book takes on real conversations with both helpers and employers. This delightful book offers a never-before-seen description of types of madams and their families on one hand, and types of helpers on the other. Through these introductions and distinctions, you will not only learn the differences between the city or town helper, but also about the quirks of the Malawian or Zimbabwean helper.

In addition, you discover invaluable truths about maid-madam relationships, including why helpers leave; how to tell the difference between old money and the nouveau riche; and that there is only one type of black madam – the middle-class African madam, because the rich African madam, as well as her Indian and white counterparts, have transcended race.