MALAWI: The father of the Malawian boy Madonna plans to adopt has said he never intended his son to be adopted by the singer, but only for her to raise the child on his behalf. In his home village of Lipunga on Saturday, Yohane Banda said Madonna asked she be able to raise his one-year-old son on his behalf, rather than that the child should become her own.
Mr Banda's statement is a major shift from his earlier remarks last week when he railed against human rights groups that went to court to stop Madonna adopting his son, David.
"Had they told us that Madonna wanted to adopt my son and make him her own son, we would not have agreed to that," Mr Banda said in his local language of Chichewa.
"It would have been better for him to continue staying at the orphanage because I see no reason why my child should be given away forever when I can feed him," he said.
Madonna (48) has angered rights groups with her plan to adopt David Banda, who left his native country on Tuesday last week for the entertainer's home in London, after she was granted temporary adoption rights by Malawi authorities.
The High Court in Lilongwe will on Friday start hearing the case lodged by the Human Rights Consultative Committee - an alliance of 67 human rights groups - which argues that current Malawi laws forbid international adoption, even by celebrities.
Mr Banda said he signed papers he could not understand, but government officials assured him the agreement was similar to what he had with the orphanage - to nurture and educate the boy but not take him away for good.
"I cannot read and write so I relied on what the [ government] officials told me that the papers said Madonna would look after the child the way the orphanage planned to educate him and then he comes back to me," he said.