The domestic help created a quandary for their employers. On the one hand, the “Missus” hated to be gossiped about. On the other hand, she got the skinny on her neighbors from the housemaid and cook.

The increasing number of married women who engage in paid jobs in the last few decades has heightened the demand for domestic servants in several Nigerian homes. Research has shown that live-in ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

On a fateful day at a wryly coloured bungalow in Awawu, Mushin, Lagos, Toyin Aribilola, mother of a six-month-old baby, had just finished her household chores. She decided to have a nap, but she was ...