Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Men in the Kitchen…………….

In my vernacular when a lady is married we say she has gone to cook (nyako odhi tedo) that is it. You have gone to cook. Cook………. cook and cook till death relieve you from that duty. If that is the African language then a woman belongs to the kitchen. How do you take that ladies? It is not me………it is African and your culture if you are an African regardless where you are.

Times are changing and now cooking timetables are being drawn where the man takes some of the days of the week. Some ladies say that husbands cooked food tastes better and they prefer their men cook for them.

I don’t know whose side I belong but I know my husband’s cooked food will not go well with the entire family. I have not tasted any food cooked by him so I have nothing to compare. I can only imagine its terrible because he’s mum and sisters did all the work in their house.

Just like I said times are changing and timetables are being drawn for men to take part in preparing meals. May question to African men are you willing to move to the kitchen?

Women can switch positions, relax with a newspaper while waiting for dinner.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is not african way of life.If my wife need a help I will get a house help but I find it strange cooking and the wife is sitted.

Please ladies I respect you but this I made clear to my wife and seeing my image in the kitchen cooking will be questioned by her.

Hoever if you agreed to your wife to be included in the cooking rosta please go ahead and do that.What we need is a peaceful living.

Proud Kikuyu Woman said...

Its not an 'African' way of life, its as global as it can get.I however think its safe to generalize here and extrapolate a typical Luo kitchen affair to the rest of the country or continent, otherwise Waswahili wouldn't equate getting a wife to kupata jiko. My individual observation is that women do more work around the house irrespective of where they are from, even in the most developed nations. I think men are more concerned about individual achievement and have less time to devote to traditionally female roles. I've therefore personally concluded that no 'developed nation' woman would convince me to 'wreck' my marriage, (had I one) on the basis of 'equality' around housework, because that is a lie. Even when the money does the work (as in you hire someone to do it) its not the man who does the hiring and ordering around,and firing but the woman.Halafu?

Jamii said...

Welcome to my blog PKW. May be you should let us know what the Kikuyu say when a woman get married.

Phil said...

Although we are told it is romantic for the husband to cook dinner at times, its a total disaster to make it a perpetual habit. The so called liberated women of today not only earn more income than men, they are presumably more educated and enlightened. That obviously makes them want to dominate their husbands and conveniently forget that it is their parents who received the bride price and not the other way round. My soulution to this plague is: Lets observe African cultural values, and you will not encounter any problem in the family.

Proud Kikuyu Woman said...

They say "ni arahikire" (she got married). For the men, they say "ni arahikanirie) (he married) but sometimes it will be "ng'ania ni araguranire" {so and so bought (a wife)} obviously in reference to the dowry.