Top > Entertainment > 2007 > April > 2007-04-30

Madonna in Malawi Again

Amidst a flurry of media speculation and rumors, music-diva, Madonna has returned to Malawi. The star was met by a pack of journalists who refused to leave her and entourage alone for a single minute and continued to follow their every move. A more unpleasant welcome was that by a group of stone-throwing teenagers, apparently as a sign of protest of Madonna?s controversial adoption of her one-year old son, David Banda from Malawi at the end of last year.

Speculations were high that Madonna, accompanied also by her older daughter Lourdes, was in Malawi to adopt another child, although this was denied by her spokesperson. It is generally believed that Madonna came to Malawi to see the progress of a new clinic that she is funding in the village of Gulumira and also to allow David?s natural father to have some contact with the child. Since the interim adoption papers were signed, Madonna has been under sharp criticism by human rights groups who argue that the child should have been left with his natural family in his homeland instead of being taken to England to live with the star and her film director husband, Guy Ritchie. Yohane Banda has been reported as saying that he struggles to get information about his child?s development and well-being from Madonna, and this visit has been seen as a way to pacify the father and show him that David is being well cared for.

Subject to the rules of the country, 18 months after the signing of the interim adoption forms, the Malawian court will decide whether David can stay with Ritchie and Madonna. Many feel that Madonna got preferential treatment in the adoption process, including the fact that she was not requested to live in Malawi with the child for the 18 month period, as stipulated by local adoption law.