By Sifelani Tsiko
Harare, Zimbabwe (Oct 27 2006)

THE move by the 'Material Girl' to adopt a Malawian baby has generated ardent debate globally with the international media and critics hurling everything against the pop diva and others keeping cool arguing this is just one case of many adoptions taking place in the developing world every year.

America pop star Madonna spent nine days in Malawi from October 4 on a humanitarian mission to help HIV and Aids orphans in this southern African country where poverty is still a big challenge.

News about her move to adopt David Banda, a 13 month old baby hit the headlines in the maddening celebrity news organs in the US, Europe and in most African newspapers on the continent.

Critics have been vicious saying the move by Madonna to adopt the Malawian baby must be viewed with all the cynicism it deserves.

"If you tell me that the life that Madonna lives on and off the stage resembles anything Malawian, I will certainly need a new pair of glasses and Dr Kamuzu Banda will definitely be walking the streets of Lilongwe at sunrise," wrote Taonezvi Mararike, a Zimbabwean speech pathologist based in the US in an article that appeared in a Zimbabwean daily.

"I am sure will all recall Madonna's erotic and pornographic dancing and numerous dates. Who will forget the controversy surrounding Madonna's relationship with Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star? If this is the kind of 'mother' that David Banda deserves, then God help us!

So many questions were raised by critics. Many asked why Madonna's adoption was fast tracked under 'special circumstances' by the Malawian court, why 'angel' Madonna did not adopt a child that did not have both parents, why she never pledged to support David's father and family and why she never wanted to support David to grow up in his country.

Many of the criticism too, fired volleys on Madonna's mysterious sect called Kabbalah which they say is 'a dangerous white supremacist sect' and will influence David to grow up in a culture of violence and that was not of his own.

"Is Madonna telling the world that Malawian do not deserve to live with their children? Is Madonna telling Africans that at 32, one's life has reached its full potential? says Mararike who also heads a US-based pan African activist movement called Davira Mhere.

"We cannot watch our self respect being dragged into the mud by Madonna. Malawians and all Africans must reject such 'help' he says.

"I am sure Yohane would have appreciated being helped to raise his son by Madonna, rather than giving him away. Having lost his 28-year old wife, Marita to complications during childbirth, Yohane is obviously still grieving and distraught. Yohane is obviously in a troubled psychological state that saw him fail to provide for his son."

Other critics say superstar Madonna took advantage of Yohane's illiteracy to 'snatch the baby' and that people must take Yohane's 'big smile' which was beamed on the CNN as a smile of 'dejection and not happiness, a smile of solitude and despondency…defeat and resignation."

"Let Madonna take a lesson from Patrick Vierra of Inter Milan who developed a soccer academy to help children in Ivory Coast. He did not uproot those children to bring them to Italy or France. Dikembe Mutombo, the NBA star built a thriving school to help children in his native country, the DRC. He did not adopt any of the children to live with them in the US," Mararike wrote in a highly charged article.

"If Madonna wants to help, let her do so in Africa and not out of Africa. Madonna return David to his father."
The criticisms in most papers centred on culture, the fast tracking of the adoption, the un-African lifestyle of Madonna and risks to David of Madonna's erotic and pornographic images.

The pendulum swung from one end to the other in this controversial debate. Others who support Madonna say poverty is real and everything must be done to create a conducive environment for people who are willing to support the poor in Africa.

The pro-Madonna camp says the media and critics were doing a great disservice to many other people who need genuine help in Africa.

"The media is doing a great disservice to all other orphans of Africa by turning it into such a negative thing," Madonna said on Opprah Winfrey's chat show recently.

Joram Nyathi, a Zimbabwean journalist says many people have taken many angles depending on their view of Madonna but have not taken the plight of David and his father or the moral issues involved.

"It is the ethical dilemma that comes with poverty that I found most excruciating. I have no brief for jealous groups who claim the adoption was a publicity stunt by Madonna. They are thousands of children adopted by western benefactors from around the developing world every year," he says.

"Protests about culture, our roots and 'robbing our cradle' are foolish humbug by people who watch and laugh at their poor neighbours plight and we have thousands of such people in Zimbabwe," Nyathi says.

"One Mararike living in the lap of luxury in America pompously parades his string of qualifications. I'm not concerned about what Madonna did as much as the cause of African poverty that I largely blame on our failure to manage our human and natural resources and distribute them equitably."

He hit out at the extremists accusing them of failing to acknowledge Madonna's work in funding charities in Malawi while they watched and did nothing when Yohane lost his other two children and his wife.

"I have no doubt that were it not for the publicity stirred by Madonna's act of charity or Yohane's decision, many might never have known about Yohane and the poverty that forced him to surrender his child to an orphanage. We have become inured to a life of widespread poverty," Nyathi says.

Poverty is real in Africa. Critics, especially those who purport to hold pan-African views must re-direct their efforts into assisting orphanages, homes for the elderly, poor students who cannot afford to go school and giving food aid to drought-stricken people before some 'white angels' come.

Africans living in the comfort of their homes in the US and Europe with their fridges packed to the brim with food are quite provocative and yet when they asked: 'What assistance have you given to the poor in Africa,' one finds there is really nothing worth writing home about.

The debate was an eye opener to many issues related to child adoption laws in Africa, lack of resources for charitable institutions, culture and values, criticism without anything being done by those who are quick to find faults on western benefactors like Madonna and how poverty is a complex issue which has no easy answers.

The firestorm around Madonna's adoption of a Malawian baby also brought the media ethics under spotlight. Is sensationalising poverty ethical? Is it right for the celebrity crazy tabloids to feed on the misery of the poor in Africa? Was the media fair, accurate and objective in its coverage of Madonna saga?

Did it highlight the poverty facing the people of Malawi, the challenges they are facing and attempt to offer possible solutions?

Both critics and those supporting Madonna somewhat raised pertinent points that will help shape the future discourse of humanitarian relations. The desire to sell papers and make profits still largely shape how the media operates. The media pays more attention to stereotyping the poor in Africa rather than examining the complex process which gives rise to poverty.

The emotions, the provocations, the mudslinging and media coverage on the Madonna saga all focused on the American pop star. Poverty, the real issue was deliberately and negligently tucked in the back seat of this firestorm. -ends