BLANTYRE (AFP) - "My understanding was not that Madonna would keep the child for good," Yohane Banda, a poor farmer told AFP over telephone from his native village of Lipunga near the Zambian border Sunday. "I was never told the adoption means that David will not longer be my son," he said, speaking in Malawi's Chichewa language. "If I was told this, I would not have allowed the adoption.
" "I want more clarification on the adoption. I would prefer that David goes back to the orphanage where I can see him any time I want, rather than send him away for good." The 48-year-old US singer, who had 13-month-old David Banda flown out of Malawi last week to join her in London, has been roundly criticised in the southern African nation and overseas over the adoption process.
The toddler's father Yohane had earlier blasted Madonna's critics, saying: "Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage?" "These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone," he told British media. But on Sunday, he told AFP he did not understand the adoption papers he had signed "because they were in English.
" The Human Rights Consultative Committee, a coalition of 67 Malawian rights groups, is challenging the adoption, saying adoptive parents from overseas are required by law to live in the country for 18 months. They have also raised questions over Madonna's credentials as a parent, evoking her past avatars when she recorded some steamy videos and had a raunchy public image. Madonna has also faced opposition from charities which say she could use her wealth more effectively, such as helping African parents fight AIDS and keeping orphaned children in their home communities.
Madonna insists the adoption was legal, saying she and her British filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie had begun the process several months ago and acted "according to the law like anyone else who adopts a child." "I expect to be given a hard time about many of the things I do," Madonna, who has courted controversy during her long career, told the celebrity news magazine People in an interview. "I know they are provocative and I prepare myself, but I did not expect the media, the government or any human rights organizations to take a stand against me trying to save a child's life.
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