Madonna and Malawi

Madonna and Malawi by Roxanne McDonald

Madonna has instigated the firing squad of righteousness numerous times in her life.  But was the human rights group all that right?

I have followed Madonna’s career for years, but stopped in the last couple to do other stuff.  Today, however, I came across some articles on Madonna’s adoption efforts of a child from Malawai—and what flattened me was how the controversy that is Madonna had been used against her when she was doing a public/world good….  Or was she?

The old news has been resuscitated, as Madonna is photographed visiting Malawi on April 16 for a three-day visit (according to Star Magazine),  The news has resurfaced because Madonna filmed a video segment for American Idol Gives Back, wherein she is in Malawi surrounded by the starving and medically needful children who are HIV positive and is appealing to Idol viewers to donate.

And the news has come back about Madonna in Malawi because she not only built an orphan care center there, under the auspices of her foundation, Raising Malawi (as well as funding six other orphanages in Africa), but she and husband Guy Ritchie adopted a boy named David from Malawi and have yet to get those adoption papers finalized.

In the fall of 2006, then, Madonna and Guy announced their intentions of adopting thirteen-month-old David.  But rather than do as smooth a transaction as Angelina Jolie has twice done for Ethiopian children, Madonna faced stern opposition.

Reportedly, Malawian human rights groups went to court to challenge the government’s granting Madonna adoption rights.  Under the impression that Madonna pulled strings as a wealthy American celebrity, the protesters belonging to The Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) moved to ensure the laws were “not bent” for Madonna.

The laws of adoption, that is, hold that anyone wanting to adopt a child has to stay with him or her for “at least eighteen months for assessment,” in a “fostering” role.

Too, it was soon after reported that David’s birth father, Yohane Banda, was confused when discussing giving up his child for adoption, not fully understanding the details in spite of his expressed assent.  According to the man’s cousin, Profera Banda, Yohane is illiterate and therefore doesn’t understand—and that he and others in the family think of this adoption as a kind of temporary thing, with Madonna bringing the child back after a few years of caring for him.

Except, Banda was not so clueless that he couldn’t respond to the protests against the adoption: he also expressed disgust at the government and human rights’ challenges to the adoption—as he had lost his wife a week after David was born and had given the baby up to the orphanage when he could not care for him on his own.

And the most ridiculous of controversies brings the year-old news back to the forefront as one writer reports Angelina Jolie is suing Madonna for stealing a copyrighted adoption idea…?

There was some discussion about how Madonna was prevented from adopting David because “Angelina Jolie filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement,” her publicist announcing that “Angelina has an exclusive contract making her the only celebrity allowed to adopt orphans from Africa.”

So I’m thinking this is a spoof news article, that nothing so ridiculous as cornering the market on caring is even acceptable never mind is copyright-able!

People Magazine cleared up some of the absurdity in their January 8, 2007 issue with the article, “Angelina Jolie: We Should Support Madonna,” wherein author Stephen M. Silverman exonerates Jolie:

“Despite her comments in a French magazine, Angelina Jolie wasn’t trying to criticize Madonna for adopting a child from Malawi, she says.  ‘The article included many falsehoods,’ Jolie said in a statement on Monday. ‘I said many positive things that were omitted. I feel we must focus on the present and I encourage everyone to be supportive so that every child can adjust nicely to their new home.’”

While she did toss in a pejorative or two, saying she would “never take a child away from a place where adoption is illegal,” she acknowledged that Malawi is a “country where there is no legal framework for adoption.”  Not illegal statutes.  Not set laws the HRCC is rightfully upholding or insisting on.  Just no laws to begin with.

So the news had become a rumor, the rumor a much-craved controversy, and the ridiculousness of competing caretakers squashed.

Sorry, folks, Madonna is doing more good than instigative these days.  I suppose we will just have to find our jollies elsewhere.

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