Madonna was accused of snatching away Malawian baby David Banda from another foreign woman who had been about to adopt him herself. In an extraordinary new twist, the boy’s father Yohane Banda said plans for his 13-month-old son to be adopted were already in motion before the singer intervened. Mr Banda spoke of his regret that Madonna has taken him, when he could have had a much quieter life had he been adopted by the unnamed woman. She has been making donations to the orphanage for six years and regularly lived there for three months at a time. He said: ‘The woman’s brother’s name was also David and she sent him pictures of my son and said he was going to come and collect him. ‘We were waiting for them both to come back to the village, but Madonna took him first. ‘If these people had adopted him, no-one would have ever caused this fuss and I could be living my life as normal.’ The new claim came as the main benefactor to David’s orphanage, a Canadian grandmother who has developed a close bond with him in his first year of life, spoke of her anguish that Madonna had taken ‘one of our babies’. Retired schoolteacher Jane Glaves had been making regular trips to the orphanage since 2000, staying for long periods at a time, living at a house she has built there with many of the children. In 2003, she took a set of male twins and a little girl home from the same orphanage to Canada and become the first and only non-national ever to do so. She was also consulted by officials from Malawi over Madonna’s adoption. She said: ‘David is such a special little boy. I would take them all in if I could, but I just could not put myself through it again.’ Speaking about Madonna’s adoption, the 70-year-old grandmother of five told First magazine: ‘All I knew about her was that she cavorted half naked in a conical bra. I found it difficult to come to terms with the fact she wanted one of our babies.’ Mrs Glaves said she was perplexed when Madonna chose David despite being offered children with no surviving family. Pictured here with a baby who is believed to be David at the orphanage, she said: ‘We put forward the names of children who had nobody, but she chose David knowing he had a living parent.’ She added: ‘Madonna has said she was told David’s family had never been to visit him. But David’s dad used to come to see him regularly.’ Malawian law dictates that foreigners must live in the country for 18 months before they are eligible to adopt a child. And Madonna herself has admitted that her team had to ‘make the laws up as they went along’ to adopt David. When Mrs Glaves was involved in the adoption of three local children to two Canadian families, the process took three years. ‘At first I was angry that Madonna seemed to be able to adopt David so quickly because of the length of time and stress the other two families had to endure,’ she said. ‘In my six years working in Malawi, they are the only orphans I know to have left the country. Madonna obviously had very good lawyers.’
Daily Mail
Everyday it is something new with this adoption, I just wonder if she will be able to keep David?
