Malawi judges reverse court order to allow Madonna to adopt Mercy

U.S. pop star Madonna has won her bid to adopt a 4-year-old girl from Malawi, the appeals court in the southern African state has ruled.

"I am extremely grateful for the Supreme Court's ruling on my application to adopt Mercy James," the pop superstar said in a statement. "I am ecstatic. My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her."

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.

But at Malawi’s Supreme Court of Appeal Friday a panel of three judges said that the singer’s commitment to helping disadvantaged children should have been taken into account. The singer has founded a charity, Raising Malawi, which helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's one million-plus orphans.

"In our view, Chifundo James is better taken care of by being adopted by foreign parents who will give her love and affection," said Supreme court Chief Justice Lovemore Munro.

"In this global village a man can have more than one place at which he resides," Munlo said in the ruling. "The matter of residence should be determined at the time of application of the adoption. In this case, Madonna was in Malawi not by chance but by intention. She is looking after several orphans whose welfare depends on her. She can therefore not be described as a sojourner."

"Madonna has shown that she is bold and compassionate enough to come forward to adopt Chifundo [Mercy] James," he said.

Madonna phoned Mercy from New York in floods of tears after hearing the court’s verdict at 4am.

She read her a “letter of motherly devotion” written with daughter Lourdes, 12. The Material Girl told Mercy, four: “Today is your new birthday, my darling daughter, as it is the day you came to me.

“It is a new beginning for us all. The world is ours to change together now. I promise I will love, protect and guide you with my every breath.

“I can’t wait to welcome you to your new home, my beautiful child. You are part of us now — of me, Lola, Rocco and David. You are so loved.”

Madonna, 50, had stayed up all night praying in her New York home. A close source said: “I’ve never seen her so emotional or so happy. She was giddy.”

Her lawyers are now preparing immigration papers so Mercy can fly to America.

Mercy's father said Madonna should not be allowed to adopt Mercy. "No one wants to listen to me, I have protested this all along ... I want my child back but I don't know what to do now," James Kabewa told Reuters by telephone from his poor township.

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.

Maxwell Matewere, executive director of a children's rights group called Eye of the Child, said he was disturbed by the court's ruling. There was no evidence that the government had looked for local families who might be willing to adopt Chifundo, and the court had failed to consider this point, he said.

“They should be able to show that adoption is the last resort,” he said. “Exporting these children is not the best solution.”

The court ruling will discourage local families from adopting, while making it easier for foreigners to adopt Malawi's children, Mr. Matewere said. “Orphanages could look at it as a business, and it could encourage child-trafficking. The demand could be very high. There could be a process of auctioneering.”

Undule Mwakasungura, chairman of the Human Rights Consultative Committee, a coalition of Malawian groups that opposed the Madonna adoptions, said he was surprised and disappointed the court allowed Madonna to be considered a resident of Malawi.

“It means that anyone can come here tomorrow and give money to an orphanage and then say that they want two or three children from that orphanage,” he said. “As long as you're supporting some projects in Malawi, even if you're not a resident, you'll be entitled to any child that you want. As long as you have money, you can bypass the rules, and that's what Madonna has done.”

Africa is already one of the fastest-growing sources of international adoptions by Canadians. The latest Madonna saga is likely to stimulate more interest in Africa by prospective parents in Canada, experts say.

“Next week, we will probably get a number of calls from people wondering whether they can do this,” said Roberta Galbraith, executive director of a Manitoba-based adoption agency, Canadian Advocate for the Adoption of Children. Her agency has helped many Canadians adopt children from Ethiopia, where film star Angelina Jolie adopted a daughter in 2005. The latest statistics show that Ethiopia has become the second-biggest foreign source of adoptions by Canadians, behind China.

“There's a celebrity factor associated with Africa, and I don't think that's necessarily good,” Ms. Galbraith said. “Before Angelina Jolie and Madonna, did anyone think of those countries? Some people even have the mentality of going in to ‘rescue' children. We have to be really careful with that. You have to think of the child.”

Because of the AIDS epidemic, an estimated 560,000 children in Malawi have lost at least one of their parents. But many Malawians object to the notion that these children would benefit if they were sent abroad to wealthier parents, far from their home culture. If poverty is the justification for adoption, almost the entire country could be adopted, they say.