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Malawi father backs Madonna
13/05/2008 10:48 - (SA)
Lipunga - The father of a
Malawian child that Madonna wants to adopt said on Monday he
supported her case but wanted the US popstar to bring his boy
home for visits.
Madonna is expected to appear in a Malawian court on
Thursday for what is expected to be a final and favourable
ruling on whether she can adopt David Banda.
She is due to
arrive in the impoverished southern African country on Tuesday.
The pop diva began adoption proceedings in 2006 and the
two-year-old has been living with her and her film director
husband Guy Ritchie in their London home since then.
The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing
the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from
adopting children in Malawi, which has been ravaged by an Aids
epidemic leaving more than one million orphans.
'No problem'
Malawi's government has recommended that its High Court
approve Madonna's adoption of the child.
"I have no problem with the government's recommendation to
allow Madonna to get the child. This is what I wanted, that
Madonna should keep the child," the boy's father, Yohane Banda,
told Reuters Television in an interview.
One of Malawi's fiercest critics of Madonna's adoption bid,
the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), said on Monday
it was no longer interested in pursuing the case, removing
another obstacle.
"It will be as a waste of time and resources to continue
pursuing the case. Malawi has more pressing issues than
Madonna," HRCC chairperson Udule Mwakasungura told Reuters.
Madonna took David when he was 13 months old after his
father had placed him in an orphanage following the death of his
wife.
Standing in a dusty village of huts, Banda said he hoped to
see his son during Madonna's trip.
Permission to see child
"If she comes with the child ... we expect to be told that
the child is here and we are allowed to see him," he said in
Lipunga, 160km from Malawi's capital.
But even if it was not possible this time, he said he hoped
to see his son every few years.
"We had agreed initially that when the child is taken, she
should bring him at least once in every three to four years so
that we should see how he is developing," the father said.
If Madonna does get to keep David, the child will grow up in
the high-flying world of a leading popstar, worlds away from
Lipunga, where Banda's relatives eat staple food like maize meal
from simple bowls and meals are cooked on open fires.
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South Africa
