 |
| Madonna held the boy she is adopting, David Banda, as she strolled with her daughter Lourdes in April. Karel Prinsloo/AP |
Madonna and (an African) child
The pop star brought attention to the plight of African orphans. But will she be allowed to keep hers?
from the August 23, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Overall, with the number of HIV/AIDS cases growing and life expectancy decreasing across Africa, there are tens of millions of children being left without either one or both of their parents. In Malawi, a country of 12 million where an estimated 14 percent of the population is HIV positive, there are approximately 1 million orphans.
Unable to take care of his newborn son alone, Mr. Banda, in consultation with his village's chief, put David in Home of Hope. Twice a week, for a whole year, Banda would ride his bicycle 22 miles along the red dirt roads to see his son, he says. Until the day Madonna whisked the child away.
The problems with the adoption – which has not been declared final yet – began with Banda's questionable renouncement of his parental rights. He signed papers allowing Madonna to take David, but has since indicated to the press that he was unclear about the difference between giving up his child for foster care and giving him up for adoption.
Moreover, Malawi's regulations stipulate that prospective parents undergo an 18-to-24-month assessment period in the country, a rule bent when Madonna was allowed to take David to London.
And criticism of the pop singer does not end there. Her Raising Malawi charity is setting up day-care centers for orphans here using a curriculum based on Spirituality for Kids, a life philosophy linked to the Kabbalah School of mysticism to which Madonna adheres.
"We have Christians and Muslims here, but no Kabbalah," says Lilongwe schoolteacher Glandson Mtumodzi. "We are unclear about the whole plan."
Numerous requests for an interview with Raising Malawi officials went unanswered.
A father's doubts
"I had anger, but I let it go," says Banda, a gentle man who makes a living growing onions and cabbage and bicycling across to the border to Zambia to sell them. He misses his son, Banda says shyly, sitting on the ground outside his hut and looking down as he speaks. He fiddles with a string on his tidy button-down shirt.
On the one hand, he clearly understands the opportunities David has been given: "He will get chances I did not have. That is good," says Banda. But, on the other hand, he talks fondly about his own childhood, in this very same village, and notes that, despite the poverty, he was happy. "It's difficult to realize what ... [you are missing] when you don't know anything else," he explains.
Banda was a teenager when "Holiday" (Madonna's first big hit song) came out in 1983, but without record stores, electricity, or TV, no one was doing much disco dancing. In fact, most here had never heard of the pop diva. But today, children yell out "Madonna" to passing vehicles, and sometimes even offer themselves up for adoption.
RSS feed
