- Since his son left Malawi for adoption by the American pop star Madonna in October last year, Yohane Banda is yet to know anything about his one-year-old son, David Banda, prompting him to ask Madonna how he is faring with live.
"I don't have her phone and mailing addresses. All I want is to find out how my son is but I don't know how I can do it," Yohane Banda sadly told 'Malawi Daily Times'.
"I only talked to her once at the High Court and I want to talk to her now and find out about my child."
Mr Banda has asked human rights group to keep away from his comments because they were not aimed at claiming his son back.
"All I want is to find out how my child is doing and not to have him back," he was quoted as saying.
His comments came after the 'Malawi Daily Times' presented him a US$ 400 cheque from a Scottish nun, Christine Webster, saying it would have been good for the young boy to stay in Malawi.
The adoption of David by Madonna had attracted international attention, with selected rights groups accusing the "Material Girl" of hiding behind her celebrity to bypass Malawi's adoption laws.
Madonna and her husband, film maker Guy Ritchie, flew to Malawi in October to sign interim adoption papers. They said their mission was purely humanitarian because it was meant to bail out a Malawi orphan.
Under the interim order ruled by the Malawi High Court, David would stay with Madonna for 18 months, after which Malawian officials would decide whether she would be given the right to stay with her family, much to the anger of human rights groups, describing it as illegal and took the matter to the court.
With over 900,000 orphaned children in Malawi, the Madonna controversy has also attracted much-needed public attention towards the plight of the country's orphans.
Malawi remains one of the world's poorest nations and has been further set back by the growing impact of the regional AIDS pandemic. It is believed that AIDS is the cause behind a majority of the small nation's relatively high number of orphaned children.
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afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
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