Maternal instincts or a human lottery for African poor?

By Stone Martindale Oct 17, 2006, 4:17 GMT

Children play at Lipunga village in Mchinji district, 180 km (112 miles) northwest of Malawi\'s capital of Lilongwe, October 11, 2006. U.S. pop star Madonna left Malawi on Friday without one-year-old David Banda she is adopting from Lipunga village, but with a pledge from the impoverished southern African nation to try and reunite the two while the adoption process is under way. REUTERS/Eldson Chagara

The UK Times Online analyzed the Madonna adoption, as the singer flies her new son to Britain.  Baby David looks now to a life far removed from the poverty and daily dangers presented to children in Malawi, and his father left behind believes it is his fate.

“My son would have ended up like me – a man who cannot read and write and he would have married early because I could not have paid for his school fees and I would want him out of the house,” Yohane Banda told The UK Times.

David’s future looks bright indeed. It will be one of privilege and travelling between the family’s homes in Britain and the United States.

The Times reports that David's existence at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre in Mchinji, where David Banda was sent after his mother, Marita, died one month after giving birth, would have provided bare bones education and grim opportunities if any. 

Lipunga, the poor village where David's family lives has no school, no clinic, no running water, no electricity, and is totally dependent on aid, after years of drought.

There is no doubt he has hit the lottery for African orphans and poor children or that matter.  One that has many in Malawi now pinning hopes on, a rich westerner to take them too.

The Times reports that disease is par for the course in Lipunga, infant mortality among the world’s highest and Aids has lowered life expectancy to 40.

Children’s activists have condemned the adoption as another in the fast-growing “export” of African children, arguing that Africa's poor children would benefit more from western help to preserve and enhance living conditions for family units and townships versus being divided and disseminated by removal.

Malawian officials refused to elaborate to any media outlets on why Madonna bypassed the adoption rules, which require adoptive parents to spend 18 months in the country for assessment.