Malawi father Banda: The only thing left of meaning is my son

By Stone Martindale Oct 16, 2006, 3:14 GMT

Madonna REUTERS/Toru Hanai

The poor father of the Malawian child that Madonna wants to adopt said on Sunday he had not planned to give up his son for good when he handed him to an orphanage after the death of his wife last year.  The child is not an AIDs orphan, just born into a family that has meager resources.

Father Yohane Banda told a British newspaper his son David was placed in an orphanage when he was just over one month old, fearing he had malaria, which killed his two other sons.

"I suppose deep in my heart I always imagined that when he was better, or I had got another wife, I would go and take him back," Banda told the UK Daily Mail. "I did not think anyone would want to take him away."

But Banda, 31, said he agreed to allow Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie to adopt the child, believing it would be a golden chance for his sole surviving child to get a good education, and grow up in good health.

"He will always be in my heart. I hate to see him leave Malawi but I have come to accept the loss," Banda said. "The government people told me it would be a good thing for the country. He will come back educated and able to help us."

Banda met Madonna in court in Malawi at an adoption hearing.

Malawi's High Court granted the 48-year-old entertainer and her filmmaker husband an interim order allowing them to take custody of the boy less than a week ago but the adoption plan has sparked anger in Malawi and elsewhere.

Malawian law prohibits adoptions by non-residents, but officials granted an exemption or waiver to Madonna. Allegedly Human rights groups are challenging that decision and plan to seek a court injunction on Monday to stop the adoption.

The Daily Mail reports "Eye of the Child," a child advocacy group in Malawi, said the request would be filed in a magistrate's court in the capital Lilongwe on behalf of about five dozen non-governmental organizations.