Malawi: Madonna Adoption Imbroglio

Malawi: Madonna Adoption Imbroglio
Sonnie Ekwowusi
12 May 2009

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Lagos — The bid by American queen of pop and celebrity, Madonna to adopt a second baby in Malawi has once again revealed that the African child is constantly vulnerable to all sorts of dangers and character-damaging ideological currents. Africans, it is often claimed, love children, but unfortunately everywhere in Africa children are the victims of abuse, neglect, preventable diseases, child trafficking, war etc. Consequently some foreign social and charitable workers are leaving their comfortable abodes abroad and volunteering to come to Africa to assist the African poor in reminiscent of the great work of the early Christian missionaries in Africa in those days.
Ostensibly moved to pity by the increasing number of abandoned orphans and poor children in Malawi , Madonna, aged 50, founded an orphanage in Malawi called Raising Malawi Charity. Since then she has been tirelessly nursing, feeding and educating more than one million Malawian orphans many of whom were orphaned by AIDS. Upon her application in 2006, the Malawian High Court endorsed her adoption of a 4-year old Malawian kid called David Banda. She is reportedly living with the lad in UK today. Apparently savouring the sweet victory of that first adoption, Madonna applied again for the adoption of another Malawian child, this time, a 3-year old girl called Chifundo (sounds like Igbo name), "Mercy" James. After a careful consideration of her application, the honourable court struck it out on the ground that she was a single mother, and, more importantly, that she had not lived in Malawi in the last 18 months as required by Malawian adoption law. The court observed that the rules were bent for Madonna when she adopted David in 2006. According to the female judge to allow Madonna to adopt a second child might encourage trafficking in orphans. "By removing the very safeguards that is supposed to protect our children, the courts by their pronouncements could actually facilitate trafficking of children by some unscrupulous individuals", the judge ruled.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Madonna lodged an appeal at the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal. The plank of her grounds of appeal is that the lower court erred grievously in law and in facts by coming to the conclusion that she did not meet the residency requirement to adopt Chifundo. The appeal came up for arguments on May 4, 2009. Madonna argued that denying her the right to adopt Chifundo amounted to denying Chifundo the opportunity to escape hardship and emotional trauma in Malawi . The Supreme Court consisting of three Justices headed by Malawian Chief Justice Lovemore Munro has adjourned the case sine die to enable the court fathom out what is best for Chifundo.
The pertinent questions, in the light of the above, are: What really informs Madonna's passion to assist the Malawian orphans? Is it compassion to save the lives of Malawian orphans or to "buy" children from poor Malawian families and take them to rich European families abroad? Is Madonna a disguised child slave dealer, a child trafficker fronting for some child syndicate abroad? Or is Madonna trying to make up for her bad past life with a showy work of charity in Africa ? As a single mother with probably little or no parental experience, is Madonna capable of adopting David and Chifundo and bringing them up responsibly in a good home and in a healthy environment? Or can Madonna be trusted to provide what is best for David and Chifundo?
The answers to these questions are very important considering the pronouncements of both the Malawian High Court and Supreme Court coupled with the mounting public opposition against Madonna's second adoption bid. First: The bid has stirred up a paternity controversy. Prior to May 4 James Kambewa, a security guard, had been claiming that he was the father of Chifundo with a strong objection to the girl's adoption by Madonna. "I may be poor but I think I have what it takes to raise a daughter', he told reporters. But on May 4 when the Madonna's appeal was argued at the Supreme Court, another man re-surfaced from nowhere and started swearing to high heavens that he was the real biological father of Chifundo. Meanwhile the father of David whom Madonna successfully adopted last year had since 2006 gone to court on the prompting of Malawian human rights group faulting the grounds on which David was given out to Madonna for adoption. David's father alleges that he is an illiterate and that he did not understand the English language in the adoption papers given to him to sign prior to David's adoption. Further he claims that he was never made to understand from the onset by the adoption dramatis personae that David, his beloved son, was being taken away by Madonna to live with her for ever. He argues that he would not have acceded to the adoption if he knew that David was going to be separated from him for ever.
More importantly, on the aforesaid May 4 Madonna came out with an immodest dressing which sparked off wide-ranging speculations about her morality and put a questionable mark on her preparedness to adopt David and Chifundo "Mercy". In fact Chifundo's father was so scandalized by the immoral dressing that he was heard to say: "I can't imagine how this woman can be the mother of my "Mercy". This can't be a woman of 50. A teenage woman would feel ashamed at that gear. A woman is supposed to be a role model for her daughters. What morals can a woman of 50 who has no qualms in showing her delicate parts and displaying herself like that in front of her children give? I don't want my daughter anywhere near such a moral-less person"
In his own reaction to Madonna's second adoption bid, Lemin Sissay, Ethiopian poet, playwright and author, who was adopted and raised by a European family, has called for caution in granting Madonna's application. He said that money is not everything in life and that the culture in which a child is raised is very important. I support of Sissay, others argue what is good for a child is not necessarily money or materials things but those good family values which would enable the child to grow up to become a responsible adult.
All said, let us not condemn Madonna. Let us give this woman the benefit of the doubt. Granted, she has her faults quite alright, but her humanitarian projects in Malawi are a reminder that African children need our protection. If love for children is still a cherished value in Africa, then Africa owes the African child the best it can give. Madonna's presence in Africa is a great indictment on our lack care for the many poor children roaming about the streets. Madonna's charity in Africa challenges African leaders and, in fact, Africans in general to provide the African children with the opportunities and facilities that would enable them to develop physically, mentally, morally, socially in a healthy environment and in atmosphere of freedom and dignity.
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In a continent where children are being felled by the day by infanticide, AIDS, child abuse, abortion, rape, poverty, disease, child labour etc, it is edifying seeing a woman from United Kingdom volunteering to go to Malawi to render assistance to the Malawian poor and orphans. In assessing the humanitarian issue of our times, the pitiable situation of African children calls for great concern. But unfortunately despite all the noise-making about protecting African children, African children continue to be victims of man's inhumanity to man, victims of unjust government policies; victims of child-soldiering, child labour; victims of "safe-sex" and "condom-sex" western propaganda; victims of ravaging AIDS and other diseases. On the whole, the promotion of infanticide in Africa especially through the media is very disturbing. Instead of recommending adoption for stranded babies resulting the from so-called "unwanted pregnancies" or conceived out of wedlock, some United Nations agencies working in Africa are mounting serious campaigns in Africa that these stranded babies be killed.
But Madonna thinks otherwise. She believes that every child, no matter the circumstances of its birth, is a wanted child. She believes that every human being that comes to life, whether he/she is an inmate of Madonna Orphanage Home in Malawi , or a product of rape, incest, or so-called "unwanted pregnancy" or not, should be given opportunity to live. After all, life is live and let live. Every human being, whether rich or poor, tall or short, handsome or ugly, educated or illiterate is destined by God for something great. The cripple, the blind, orphans, beggars, elderly, physically-challenged are ontologically complete human beings. We have no right to kill them or discriminate against them on the wrong assumption that they are useless. Nobody is useless.