Baby David's father: Madonna is a liar

By Stone Martindale Oct 28, 2006, 22:57 GMT

Yohane Banda, father of 13-month old Malawian boy David Banda who Madonna plans to adopt, speaks to a journalist in Lipunga village near the Zambian border, October 21, 2006. REUTERS/Eldson Chagara

Yohane Banda, 32, the father of Madonna's adopted child has gone on record that Madonna has lied regarding her claim on TV that his wife and other children died of AIDS.

Banda's wife died after giving birth to 13-month-old David, and says he will now have to live with the stigma of the world thinking his family was struck down by AID's.

The African farmer denied the Madonna's allegation that he had never visited his son at the orphanage, where he was given up at the age of two weeks.

On the Oprah Winfrey Show last week, Madonna, 48, said when she met baby David at the orphanage in Malawi she was told his mother and three siblings had died of AIDS, while his father's whereabouts were unknown.

Banda, who lives in the village of Lipunga said to the UK Daily Mail: "She never went for an HIV test and she died in Zambia at her parents' house, so how could anyone know if that is what she died of?"

Anemia was a possible culprit, according to Banda and the clinic she attended when she became ill during pregnancy.

Later he was told his wife had a physical condition that made childbirth "very risky."

The UK Daily Mail reports that "Banda insisted he had two other children - not three as Madonna was told - one of whom had died of malaria, while the other died suddenly at 18 months from an unknown cause. Neither was HIV positive as far as he knew."

Banda is now worried that if people believed Madonna's claims, he will be haunted by her lies.

Madonna said baby David had been abandoned by his family. "No one from his extended family had visited him since he arrived," she told Oprah.

But Banda says no, and this was also "a lie", adding: "I visited David many times, too many to count."  The Daily Mail reports that the baby was visited by his grandmother, and Banda's brother, Profera, "saw him almost every day, sometimes twice a day."

Banda stopped short of completely blaming Madonna and instead accused the orphanage of giving her "false information".

The Daily Mail reports that an official at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre stated: "We gave her no such information," and instead pointed the finger at Malawi's Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare.

Banda, is under the impression a Christian will be raising his son, that baby David was going to "a very nice Christian lady."

Allegedly Madonna took baby David to the Friday night Shabbat ceremony at the Central London Kabbalah Center, and invited other children to "come and play with baby David". Reported the Daily Mail.

The boy was allegedly seen wearing the Kabbalah red string bracelet, believed by followers to ward off evil spirits.