The father of the African baby Madonna wants to mother appealed for an end to legal challenge to her adoption bid, fearing the singer could react by sending the boy back to his impoverished homeland.
Speaking on the eve of a hearing in Malawi’s administrative capital, Lilongwe, when rights groups will challenge an interim adoption order, Yohane Banda said the case should be dropped ”for the sake of my child’s future and health”.
”I appeal to them to stop it because I don’t want Madonna to get annoyed to the point of wanting to send back my David,” 32-year-old Banda told Agence France-Presse.
Banda said local rights groups were ”on my neck every day to support the court action … I am afraid if this is successful Madonna may send David back and I will have nowhere to go to fend for him”.
The High Court in Lilongwe will begin hearing the case, brought by a coalition of 67 rights groups, on Friday.
The groups say the government fast-tracked the process and broke its own laws by allowing 13-month-old David to be flown to the singer’s London home before the adoption — which usually takes 18 months — gets final approval.
However, Banda said that the court case was unhelpful.
”I am confused as to whose interests these human rights organisations are serving,” he said. ”Tell Madonna not to be angry with what they are doing.
”Madonna is helping to take David out of poverty and possible death from diseases, and yet these people want to spoil everything,” he added.
Despite the father’s comments, a spokesperson for the rights groups ruled out any prospect of the court challenge being dropped.
”We will not move an inch to stop the legal action,” Maxwell Matewere said.
Matewere, director of Eye of the Child, said that it was clear that David should not have been allowed to leave the country and live with Madonna.
”Malawi has no laws on inter-country adoption and the rules we have are that Madonna should have been a resident of Malawi first for 18 months to qualify as a candidate for adoption,” he said.
Matewere said David should be given an option when he reaches adulthood to either to return to Malawi and be re-united with his family or continue to stay with Madonna.
”There are many legal issues we will be challenging to protect both adopted children and their new parents to avoid legal tussles.”
In an interview on United States talk show Oprah on Wednesday, Madonna insisted the adoption process had been conducted properly and she had not used her vast wealth to fast-track the process.
She also refuted earlier comments by Yohane Banda that he didn’t realise he was giving up his son for good and would not have allowed the adoption if he had.
”I believe that the press is manipulating this information out of him,” she said. ”I do not believe that is true.”
The 48-year-old Madonna was granted an interim order to adopt David by the High Court earlier this month after spending a week in the Southern African country to assess Aids projects she had funded.
David flew to London several days after Madonna had jetted back home after passport and visa issues were resolved. — Sapa-AFP