Madonna has succeeded in her attempt to adopt a second child from Malawi after an appeal court overrode residency demands and ruled that “every child has the right to love”.
The decision by the African state’s highest court means the singer could take four-year-old Chifundo “Mercy” James to New York within days.
But it will do nothing to silence complaints that Madonna has used her wealth and celebrity to bypass the country’s laws.
Nor will it quash claims by Chifundo’s father that he has been sidelined by the child’s maternal family.
In a telephone interview following the court’s ruling in favour of Madonna, James Kabewa said he was disappointed and angry. “This is my child and somebody should have listened to me. I want Madonna to give me my child,” he said from a relative’s house in one of Blantyre’s biggest townships of Chilombwe.
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He added: “I have not seen my child in a long time since the mother died. When I learnt that Madonna wanted her, I was stopped from seeing her at the orphanage. I have completely been left out in all this and it’s unfair.”
Mr Kabewa blamed his mother-in-law, Lucy Chekichewa, and his daughter’s uncles. “They never consulted me, they hid my child at an orphanage and never allowed me access,” he said.
But one of the infant’s uncles, Peter Benenti, accused Mr Kabewa of abandoning his responsibilities as a father.
Alan Chinula, Madonna’s lawyer, said in an interview that Mr Kabewa’s comments would have little impact.
“It’s too late now . . . where was he all this time? His protests cannot legally change anything now, it’s done, it’s over,” Mr Chinula said.
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Madonna’s application to adopt Chifundo was initially rejected by a lower court in April because the singer is not resident in Malawi, and because a judge decided that the young girl would fare perfectly well in the orphanage where she has lived.
The lower court had also pointed out that the residency rule had already been bent when Madonna adopted her son David, now 3, from Malawi last year. Madonna also has two biological children, Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, aged 8.
But at Malawi’s Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday a panel of three judges said that the singer’s commitment to helping disadvantaged children should have been taken into account. Madonna has founded a charity, Raising Malawi, for orphans there.
They also argued that the residency disqualification was a narrow interpretation of largely outdated laws.
Madonna said in a statement: “I am ecstatic . . . My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her.”
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The Human Rights Consultative Committee said it fears that the ruling has opened up the country’s vulnerable children to trafficking.