AFP: Madonna in Malawi for second adoption
US pop star Madonna arrived in Malawi on Sunday to begin proceedings to adopt a three year old girl, the second child she has taken into her family from the poor African nation.
A private jet carrying the 50-year-old pop star and her entourage landed on a runway reserved for cargo planes at Lilongwe’s Kamuzu international airport.
The plane was kept away from waiting journalists and photographers but she was seen leaving the airport in a convoy of four vehicles.
Madonna’s lawyer, Alan Chinula, is to file adoption papers in the Lilongwe high court on Monday for three-year-old Mercy James from an orphanage in southern Malawi, according to a court official. The singer saw the girl during her first visit to Malawi, in 2006 when she adopted a first child, David Banda.
David is meant to be on this trip and his biological father, Yohane Banda, told AFP on Sunday he would be allowed to see his son for the first time in three years.
“I have been told by officials of Raising Malawi that I will see my son. I am excited about it,” Banda, 34, said in a telephone interview.
He said he last saw David in 2006, when he also met Madonna at the high court where she filed adoption documents.
David was in an orphanage for the children of AIDS victims, where he was placed by his father following the death of his mother.
The pop singer caused controversy then as she was accused of using her fame and wealth to fast-track the process because Malawi does not have inter-country adoption legislation.
Madonna was given a provisional 18-month custody which was made permanent last May.
Madonna was quoted in local reports saying she wanted David “to stay connected to his Malawi culture… to keep him closely connected to his cultural heritage.”
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest nations, with more than half of the population of 12 million living on less than one dollar a day.
From an article by the Agence France Presse via Yahoo! News.
Madonna and her daughter Lourdes shake hands with residents in the village of Magwelo on the outskirts of Lilongwe, Malawi, Sunday March 29, 2009. Madonna toured an impoverished village and discussed plans Sunday for building a new school in Malawi, the central African nation where officials said she would begin proceedings this week to adopt a young girl. Photos and caption by the Associated Press via Google News.