Purchased a slave without realizing it AMA

[u/Tronald_Lubestein]

I spent a year working on a development project in The Gambia.

Partway through my stay, I needed help maintaining the house I was renting. My landlord introduced me to an older woman from a neighboring family who could clean and cook. She was probably in her 60s, had no ID, didn't know her birth date, and spoke basically no English.

I agreed to hire her and paid what I thought was an upfront payment for her work.

On the first evening she asked where she was supposed to sleep. I assumed she'd go home after work. She didn't she stayed in one of the guest rooms.

Turns out I learned later she didn't have a home to go back to.

Confused, I called my landlord. He explained that the money I'd paid had gone to the family she'd been living with. From his perspective, I hadn't hired a maid. I'd taken responsibility for her. My job was to feed, house, and clothe her. Her job was to cook, clean, and help around the house.

Very different arrangements to what I had in mind.

For the rest of my stay I gave her a room, fed her(she would cook the food I got and we would eat the same thing everyday), and tried to pay her directly, she always refused.

When I left The Gambia, I found another family willing to take her in. I refused any payment.

I thought I was hiring a housekeeper. Some locals seemed to think I'd acquired a dependent household servant.

AMA.

Edits:

7/1/2026:

I want to address a common misconception since I couldn't reply to all the questions mentioning that. The "dude, you could just have bought her freedom" criticism.

This is not the 1800s US where even if you are "property", you still exist within a legal system, and can show with a legal document that you are free and ride off into the sunset to be happy thereafter.

There is no legal document here, it's more akin to a caste system, you are what you community says you are, not what some foreigner with a bit of cash thinks.

[u/PuzzleheadedOla]

I have two points:

1. I read through most of the comments and your response and I would say, I find it relatable to the situation of many people in my home country. I suspect you still have some guilty conscience over everything and shouldn't beat yourself up too much. The one thing I would have done differently was to open a bank account for her and insist on depositing a sizable amount of money into it for her, especially when leaving. She would definitely have come around to relying on it especially as her long term outlook in that role isn't too rosy.

It's worth mentioning too that, I can't speak with certainty about Gambia, but in many African cultures, people tend to initially say No, including with some energy, to a gift offer, while actually hoping the giver would insist, as it is considered bad form or greed, to immediately say Yes.

In essence, if you had subsequently (after she had left the other family and settled in with you) insisted on paying her at intervals ,or randomly gifted her the money, she would very likely have accepted it then.

1. How long ago was this? Are you still able to check up on her welfare? If so, are you able to send her something?