I have two options and I’m passionate about both. I have also written a short film [about 45mins] inspired by my former Tonga housemaid. She was a good story teller and although in her late 20’s, Smanga would summon my two youngest children who are now 12 and 13, for bed time stories almost every night.
She had married very early to an old poligamist. When her husband brought home a 4th wife, Smanga fled to the city and left behind 6 young children. She couldn’t cook a decent meal or clean the house very well but her personality is what got her the job. She played games with the children as if she was a child herself and at other times, her maturity and wisdom surprised me.
She was also a natural flirt and loved the attention she was getting from my lonely neighbour Ngwenyama, whose wife had joined most women who had abandoned their warm, marital beds for greener pastures in the UK. She told me Ngwenyama had promised to marry her and within a few months, Smanga was pregnant.
Her lover must have changed his mind as l woke up one early morning to find a bloody bathroom and no sign of Smanga. She had dumped the dead featus on her lover’s doorstep and fled. I never saw her again but this is a synopsis of a short film inpired by one of her stories.
