“The Rooster May Crow, But the Hen Lays the Eggs” — A Labor Day Salute to African Workers

Happy Labor Day, My People!

Or, as we say where I come from: “The chicken that doesn’t crow still wakes up with the sun.”

Yes, it's the 1st of May, 2025 — a day to toast, boast, and post about the warriors in lab coats, the tireless hands in the fields, the hustlers behind boda bodas, and yes — even the underpaid, overworked, occasionally invisible research assistants who haven't seen a salary increment since Moi planted trees with Queen Elizabeth.

So let’s talk, my fellow Kenyans and Africans — not in the sterile language of HR policy documents, but in the beautiful, spicy, sun-drenched poetry of truth. Pull up a plastic chair. Grab a cup of tea with enough sugar to kickstart a boda boda. We’re about to get real.

“The Goat That Roams Too Far Will Meet the Hyena”

Let’s start with the obvious: Work is hard. Especially here in Africa, where workers often carry the continent’s GDP on their backs while being paid in exposure, promises, and tea.

We are the land of:

• Degrees in biochemistry being used to run mobile money stalls.

• Nurses working 48-hour shifts like they’re trying to beat Usain Bolt’s record for fastest burnout.

• Interns surviving on mandazi and vibes.

• And professionals who are expected to save lives, publish papers, manage families, pay ‘black tax’, and still smile with white teeth for LinkedIn.

Yet still — we rise.

The African worker is the very definition of resilience. Even when your boss pays you in "God will bless you," you show up on time, you hustle on weekends, and you somehow have the strength to send airtime to your cousin in the village who thinks you’re a millionaire because you once flew to Nairobi.

But let’s face it — the system could do better.

“The Man Who Marries a Beautiful Woman Should Be Ready for the Dowry of Stress”

Ah yes — the dream job. That beautiful, glittering position that everyone wants. You land it. You're excited. You think it’s all coffee dates and power suits. Then boom — you discover it comes with stress, late-night Zoom calls, and a salary that ghosted you like an ex.

We need to talk about work-life balance — or the lack of it.

Too many of our doctors are collapsing mid-surgery. Teachers are marking books with tears. Researchers are reading trial protocols at 2AM while pretending they didn’t forget their own birthdays.

Here’s a thought: If your job is making you look like your passport photo — it’s time to reflect.

The good book (of African proverbs) says: “Even the hen rests after laying an egg.” Why then are we out here glorifying burnout like it’s a badge of honor?

Rest, my people. Rest is resistance. Rest is recovery. Rest is revolutionary.

“The Eye That Sees All Doesn’t Need Glasses, It Needs Sleep”

As a medical editor, let me say this loudly for those in the back (and those running 3 jobs to afford rent in Ruaka): your mental health is part of your job description.

Labor Day should not just be about toasting our labor — it should be about protecting the laborer.

So here’s a prescription:

• Sleep like your ancestors intended.

• Laugh like your landlord just reduced the rent (even if he didn’t).

• And most of all, work in ways that add beauty and meaning to other people’s lives — not just money to someone else’s bank account.

“You Cannot Climb a Baobab Tree with Banana Tactics”

Let’s also be real: we can’t keep using foreign templates to solve uniquely African labor issues. Our challenges are homegrown — our solutions must be too.

We are facing:

• Youth unemployment so high, it could register as a political party.

• Brain drain that’s making the continent feel like an intellectual colander.

• Gig economies with no safety nets.

• Health workers trained locally, poached globally, and remembered occasionally.

Yet in all this — there is hope.

You see, “when the roots are deep, the tree does not fear the wind.”

We are growing talent like maize in the rainy season. Our young people are coding, curing, crafting, and creating like it’s their destiny. And maybe — just maybe — it is.

“Even the Lizard Nods in Praise After Surviving a Fall”

So today, whether you’re:

• A rural clinician giving vaccines with one hand and filling paperwork with the other,

• A startup founder surviving on ramen and broken dreams,

• A hospital janitor who makes the ward shine brighter than the ministry’s promises,

…or just someone trying to do a little good in this wild world — I salute you.

Labor Day is your day. Don’t just work for money — work for meaning. Work for joy. Work for the stories you’ll tell your grandchildren under the mango tree.

And remember — “The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.”

So as employers pop champagne and take selfies with their workers, may they also remember to:

• Pay fairly.

• Hire responsibly.

• Promote transparently.

• And allow people to leave work at 5PM without being haunted like they committed treason.

“A Person Who Sells Eggs Should Not Start a Fight in the Market”

Let me not cause too much chaos — I still need advertisers to renew contracts and HR to approve my leave.

So let me end with this:

To every African worker, hustler, healer, helper, thinker, toiler, teacher, fixer, farmer, builder, innovator, and dreamer:

You are seen. You are valued. You are celebrated.

This Labor Day — breathe, laugh, and live. Because you are the heartbeat of this continent.

Signed,

The Editor-in-Chief, Medical MagazineKE

African. Tired. Hopeful. Still Dreaming.