Madonna under fire for using celebrity status to skirt Malawi laws to adopt children
American pop diva Madonna has come under intense fire for using his celebrity status to skirt round the Malawi laws in her bid to adopt twin girls Esther and Stella Mwale.
The High Court in Lilongwe on Tuesday allowed Madonna to adopt twin four year girls from Mchinji even though the pop diva is not a resident of Malawi.
The laws strictly sas only residents of Malawi can adopt children in this impoverished southern African country.
However, Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula said the judge hearing the adoption case found that Madonna would look after the children well even though she is not resident in Malawi.
Madonna’s lawyer in Malawi, Titus Mvalo, said the 58-year-old singer showed to the High Court judge Fiona Mwale how she is looking after two children adopted from Malawi, David Banda in 2006 and Mercy James in 2009 .
The twins are being adopted from the Home of Hope orphanage in Mchinji, near the western border with Zambia, where David Banda once lived. Their mother died when they were just months old.
A lawyer for Madonna in Malawi, Titus Mvalo said Madonna has demonstrated over the years that “she has passion for Malawi and her children, “ and therefore the High Court was “satisfied “ that she is suitable to forthe adoption of the twins.
The adoption is conditional on Madonna proving she will provide a suitable home for Esther and Stella who will join David Banda and Mercy James, Rocco, from her marriage to Guy Ritchie, and Lourdes, from a previous relationship.
Dominic Misomali, a government-appointed guardian, will travel with Madonna, Stella and Esther to the US and observe how she looks after them, before reporting back to the government.
Meanwhile, an uncle of Madonna’s adopted daughter Mercy has told he family of the twins that it will be “as if [their] children have died”.
According to the UK Mail Online, in a message to the twins’ family, Mercy’s uncle Peter Banet warned: “You may never see your children again, never have contact with them. It will be as if your children have died. That is the pain we feel every day.
“I put my hand up in court, swore an oath and signed the adoption consent. I can never forgive myself for that, and there is sadness and disappointment throughout my family. I have to take the blame. I am ashamed.”
Banet, whose 14-year-old sister, Mwandida, died after giving birth, told the paper his family has not seen Mercy, now ten, since she was taken to New York in 2009.
She has been taken on “cultural visits” to Malawi but her family has never been informed.
They claim to have been “tricked” into believing Mercy would stay in touch and one day return home.
Her uncle added: “We want to ask Madonna, ‘Do you not care at all about Mercy’s family? Her family is here, alive, and we want to see her and talk to her’.
“We are her birth family, her blood relatives, and we don’t even know where she is. No one is listening to us. We have been very badly deceived.”
Madonna was at the High Court in Lilongwe when the ruling on the adoption was made.
She refused to talk to journalists but in her earlier interviews, she said she feels obliged to adopt children to raise them out of poverty.
The UK newspaper, Daily Mail gave a brief fact file of the “ formidable judge” who decided Madonna adoption bid,British-educated Fiona Mwale with her photo indicating it was sourced fron Nyasa Times.
It reported that Justice Mwale, chairman of Malawi’s Child Case Review Board and a fearsome campaigner for justice for minors, gained a law degree at Leeds University, a Masters at Warwick and her Post-Graduate Diploma from Nottingham in England.
The mother of a severely disabled child, she is passionate about reforms to help vulnerable children, the paper reported
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Madonna pliz come and adopt Peter watisaukisa chonde
Kodi Madonayo amapereka zingati potenga anawa? Mumuuze kuti inenso ndilipo wamkulu kale akandisamale. Mmm Malawi sindimukwanitsa
It was quite a big mistake @ 1st if the guardians of then adopted kids were not openily tald that if you allow this mzungu to take your child in adoption way your kids will no longer belong to you. Then they had to accept and sign we coudn’t be reading these pity stories showing ignorance of many Malawians.
malawians talking too much trush.Are you able to look after these kids or you just want them to just end up working at tobacco estates.be serious
But are you aware that Madonna was refused custody of her own child after divorce because she is not a good parent/mother. Please investigate properly. Do not just act out of love for money malawians. These kids could be subjected to abuse. Leaders love your people and be ashamed of yourselves to allow these degrading tendencies.
How many of u who are against Madonnas initiative to give these less fortunate kids a decent home have adopted or foster any kids? or ur relatives kumudzi? Whilst you are busy eating chicken and chambo and browsing your gadgets and writing nosense those kids have been eating mgaiwa ndi masamba and other days not knowing where the next meal will come from. God has reached out to them thru a good samaritan in the name of Madona so just keep quiet and start helping out abale anu ovutika kumudzi then come back and comment.
I don’t normally comment on stories on here, but whoever is against kids being adopted i suggest you have a good chat with yourself before jotting down your opinions on here.
It’s very unfortunate that the relatives of adopted children are blind of the laws of adoption. I think there is need to educate these people before they make commitments of this nature. However, many Malawians are blind too! They don’t know the difference between Adoption and Fostering!
When you pick a child from the hospital or an orphanage whose mother and father passed on and you volunteer to look after that child, it is called Parental fostering. Ironically, this child can be raised by you, send him/her to expensive schools or whatever, but that child does not form part and parcel of your estate…in simple terms, that child cannot have a share of your
wealth. Similarly, that child if free to visit his/her relatives anytime he/she desires and can eventually go back to his/her relatives. No matter how much you can spend on that child you cant stop him/her visiting or relocating back to his/her relatives.
While adoption is a complex process that goes through many stages before you are allowed to adopt that child. For example, the government must have proof that you have a stable family, a stable financial resource, your family has no issues to do with violence etc!! The Courts must also determine suitability and the general environment surrounding the child, It is only after you passed all this then you are allowed to adopt the child. In return that child can be renamed….in other words the child will be known by yours names…..becomes wholy yours. palibe wina kupanga mfwe mfwe with that child!!!
When Maddona is adopting our brothers and sisters here in Malawi dont expect those children to come back to their ralatives….ana ndi ake !!!!! For your information, those children changed their nationality …they are no longer Malawians!!.
My request should to to Dr Mary Shawa with her entire staff at the Ministry of Gender and Child welfare to start educating Malawians the difference between ADOPTION and FOSTERING.
Amene talola ana athu kupangidwa adopt tiyeni tivomereze kuti anawa sitidzawaonanso nga Mai Maddona. Whether we did it out ignorance or not koma basi ana tapereka so lets stop cryin!
To borrow words from Mercy’s Uncle who was interviewed by BBC, said ” we should treat them as good as dead” yes ,i do concur with you…forget you ever had Mercy!!!
While
These children are dumped at the orphanage right now meaning that there is nobody among their relatives who can take care of them.someone outside malawi has felt so sorry for vis kids and wants to accord a better and happy life and u r against it.If I may ask,all along what have u done to such kind of kids to hide in the name of such useless laws?
Ankolo apatu zikuvutani. Adoption rules briefly exterminate your relationship with the adopted – child, she/he is no longer your child any more. S/he has new family (parents) now. If you will be visited by the adopted- child is your fortune. Munaluza basi ameneyo.
Learn before act. Its really shame that you are regretting, SORRY !!
The problem is not Madonna. It’s the authorities who granted her the adoption.
I don’t see any relationship of this sentence “The mother of a severely disabled child, she is passionate about reforms to help vulnerable children, the paper reported” with this story.
The relatives of David and Mercy will see the benefits in future not now. Kungoti mwangokhala ndi dyera basi kuti simukudyera ndi anawo. Adzathandiza inu kapena ana anu omwe mwawasiyitsa sukulu panowo kamba ka poverty patsogolo. Bravo Madonna!!!!!!!!! Bravo Justice Mwale!!!!!!!!
The problem is not with Madona but with us Malawians. After 50 years of independence, the laws in Malawi only make sense to the lawyers. It is high time the curtain be cut and local people are able to understand what adoption means. They think the kids will be sent back to them as we do with the kids from the village we keep in our homes. It is unfortunate that the adoption laws are a copy and paste from the West.
We need to be careful with these orphanages, they might be conduits for child trafficking. The case of Madonna might be well known because of her celebrity status. But how many more kids have been adopted without our knowledge? Just thinking aloud.
Adoption means he child is going to be raised by the person who is adopting them and from then on the child does not return to their original environment. The may visit but that is all.It seems that the families of these adopted children, Mercy and David expected Madonna to return the children at some point in their lives. Well, it doesn`t work like that. Someone please educate these families involved in these adoption cases.
Ndi zomveka kufuna kuona mwana komanso uncle wo adzikumbukira kuti mercy yo anakamsiya ku orphanage kusonyeza kuti amasowa mtengo wogwira. Komanso my appeal to madonna, atleast when visiting malawi, make sure you go to these childrens villages so that the families can be assured that their kids are still alive and in safe hands. Thats malawian culture anyway.
The poor and uneducated are always taken care of. Adoption is good as it offers the adopted children a better future. However every effort must be made to tell the relatives of the child that once adopted the kid belongs to the adopting person and there is no obligation to the new parent to bring the kid to his/her old village.
I am wondering why these people are complaining. If they cared for the children, why did they leave them at an orphanage instead of taking good care of them? By leaving them at an orphanage it meant there was nobody to look after them. So stop complaining because had you taken custody of and looked after them, Madonna would not have come to your house to adopt the children.