Fourways domestic worker writes riveting autobiography
FOURWAYS - A Fourways domestic worker has done what few can do.
Charity Musayani from Zimbabwe, who works for a Fourways family, has written a book.
In her autobiography, Patience of Charity, she has chronicled the hardships she went through in three countries and a painful story which could reduce even Lucifer to tears. The plot of her life story played itself out in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa where the 43-year-old mother had to scavenge for a livelihood.
It took Musayani a whole year to put together the riveting story of her life when she was a domestic worker by day and writer by night – with the assistance and encouragement of her employer, Nicole Feuring.
“Many of us have a domestic helper or a nanny often staying with us under the same roof. For many years we might be living on the same grounds, spending the day together, but how much do we really know about each other’s lives? With the hectic lifestyle that we are all living, there is not much time to sit down and talk,” said Fuering in a written statement to Fourways Review.
In her book, Charity shares her difficult upbringing and her troubled marriage. She had to leave a decent job to go into gold panning – but never found gold, only poverty. She then switched to the ‘black diamond business’ in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland province, but the stone’s glitter also eluded her.
Determined to make it, against all odds, she then migrated to Mozambique expecting solace, but none came her way. She went through very rough patches in her life which include working in the garden, scavenging for thatching grass to sell and surviving on raw vegetables. Charity also was swindled of her hard earned cash in Mozambique by a relative she had entrusted with her savings.
She then ended up in South Africa in 2012 working as a domestic worker.
Her writing instinct surfaced after her employer exposed her to a huge shelf filled with books. She read many of them and realised that she also had a powerful story to share.
After sharing her desire to write a book, Feuring provided her with a big notebook and a beautiful pen. Off Musayani went, penning the story of her life every night.
As tears ran down her cheeks, Charity’s ink crisscrossed her notebook pages and her story emerged. Her employer typed up her work, edited it and sponsored the book’s publication.
“It’s a story absolutely worth reading about a woman [who seems] ordinary, living among us, just as many others, but with the ambition to make a success of her story and the will to develop,” said Feuring.
Any publisher wishing to assist Charity can contact her on 0789344834 or charity.musayami@gmail.com
