An appeal will be heard in Madonna’s rejected bid to adopt three year-old Mercy James on May 4. Madonna is not expected to be present at the hearing in Malawi and her case is thought to be weak despite government support. The 50 year-old singer is single now and she also has to contend with objections from Mercy’s living grandmother and father. Mercy’s father has written a letter to the Human Rights Consultative Committee, the organization which appealed to the government to deny Madonna’s adoption, asking for a lawyer to help him claim custody of his daughter. What’s more is that Mercy’s dad has harsh words for Madonna and doesn’t want Mercy around that lifestyle, if you believe the quotes in the Daily Mail.
James Kambewa, 24, said he wanted to spare his three-year-old daughter Mercy a life of ‘scandal’ with a woman he claimed lacks ‘good morals’.
Mr Kambewa, who has never met his daughter after walking out on her mother when she was pregnant, has written a letter to lawyers asking for a permanent injunction against Madonna adopting her.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail last night, Mr Kambewa, who earns just £23 a month as a security guard, insisted he would give his daughter a good home.
Mercy has been living in an orphanage since her mother died.
‘She is my daughter; she is my blood; she needs parental love,’ he said. ‘She is not an orphan. She lost one parent, yes, but I am still alive and so she is not an orphan.
‘Madonna has millions of dollars but that doesn’t make her a good mum. Parental love is more than money.’
He added: ‘Besides, I don’t think Madonna is a model mum. I have seen her in movies of her songs. She doesn’t portray good morals.
‘How can a woman of 50 dance almost naked on stage? I wouldn’t want my daughter to grow up like that! In Malawi women respect themselves. Cultured women do not go about half-naked.
‘I also heard after her marriage failed she is already seeing two men, both very younger than her and her ex-husband. I hear one of them is even less than half her age. That’s scandalous. How can a normal woman fall for a boy who can as well be her son? No, spare my Mercy that scandal.’
A court has already denied Madonna, 50, the chance to adopt Mercy, but she is said to be ‘ confident’ of overturning that ruling at an appeal next Monday.
She had hoped it would succeed on the basis she has the backing of Mercy’s immediate family, including her grandmother Lucy Chekichiwa and her uncle Peter Baneti. That, however, was before Mr Kambewa’s intervention.
He is enlisting the help the Human Rights Consultative Committee, a group of organisations which have campaigned against Madonna’s adoption bid.
In a hand-written letter to the HRCC legal team, headed ‘ Claiming the right to raise a child’, he said: ‘I have learnt that an American-musician called Madonna has applied to a court for the adoption of the kid, to which the grandmother has consented.
Madonna holds her adopted son David as they meet with the boy’s biological father, Yohane Banda, during her visit to Malawi in March
‘However, I do not consent to the adoption because I feel I am capable of raising the child.’
Mr Kambewa met Mercy’s mother Mwandida Maunde when she was 15. They fell in love and Mwandida became pregnant.
But Mr Kambewa denied responsibility for the child and disappeared. He has pledged to take a DNA test to prove he is the father.
‘I regret I haven’t been around for Mercy for the past three years,’ he said. ‘She shouldn’t have been at the orphanage if I was around.
‘I regret my childishness. I hope the appeal fails so that I assume my rightful role as Mercy’s dad.’
The HRCC confirmed it had received his letter and will decide whether to appoint a lawyer for him.
[From The Daily Mail]
Many people are going to say “Sure this guy wants to claim his daughter now. Where was he for three years?” According to an earlier story we covered, James had to flee his village out of disgrace when he got Mercy’s mom, then 15, pregnant. That’s not an excuse for not contacting his daughter in that time but we have no idea what his life was like or how difficult it must be to live in that kind of poverty. If he wants to care for his daughter he has every right to. Hopefully he’s earnest about it and really does want to give her a loving home. Mercy’s grandmother has also publicly spoken out about the adoption and she may have changed her stance but I think the Daily Mail is incorrect here when they say she supports it. Lucy Chekechiwa told the press that she wants her granddaughter Mercy to return home to live with her once she reaches the age of six, which is when she’s expected to have developed immunity to malaria and other childhood diseases.
Madonna and Jesus are shown outside Kabbalah on 4/25/09. Credit: WENN.com. There’s also a letter that Mercy’s dad wrote to appeal for help with his daughter.
“Mr Kambewa, who has never met his daughter after walking out on her mother when she was pregnant”
Yeah. What a great parental model… indeed?!!!!
That’s the part that struck me, too, Lio.
I love Mr Kambewas´s description of Madonna´s lifestyle. I´m not actually sure that her ways are more scandalous than his since getting a 15 year old girl pregnant surely isn´t considered proper anywhere. But I just had to snicker at him saying feminist icon Madonna has no self-respect. And I´d hate my own mom to start an affair with someone like Jesus Luz.
Madonna has made her fortune by marketing herself as a slut and disrespecting the Christian faith by mocking Our Lord on the cross. I agree with Mr Kambewas’s perception of her. She is not fit to be anyone’s mother. She’s nobody’s role model. Any country that allows her to buy a child — well shame on them.
Very color coordinated kids there. David, Rocco and Jesus all in white. How sweet.
Hmm, so I guess this means he will take care of his own child now? I think not.
N, I totally agree with you. Madonna spends 99% of her time on herself either trying to stave off the ravages of time or obsessively making money. She has marketed herself not with any discernable talent but by sexualizing everything from religion to politics. She’s money/power/attention-mad and if she were my mother I’d probably run away from home.
Maybe he’s looking for a pay off. We can only imagine what it’s like being that poor and he certainly never made an effort to find out about the child before a rich celebrity showed an interest. Think Madonna should have kept baby Jesus on the back burner for a while (at least until the adoption went through). Not putting her lifestyle down (to each his/her own) but can see that some people would.
What happened to the national requirement of actually living there before adopting?
Perhaps the father is sincere regarding his admission of having been childish. Regardless, if the grandmother wants her once she establishes immunity to the local diseases, shouldn’t that be reason enough to refuse Madonna?
Why does she insist on adopting children w/ families when there are surely more than enough orphans?
“Many people are going to say “Sure this guy wants to claim his daughter now. Where was he for three years?” According to an earlier story we covered, James had to flee his village out of disgrace when he got Mercy’s mom, then 15, pregnant.”
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Didn’t know that. It explains why the father wasn’t around.
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“Lucy Chekechiwa told the press that she wants her granddaughter Mercy to return home to live with her once she reaches the age of six, which is when she’s expected to have developed immunity to malaria and other childhood diseases.”
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This explains why she is in the orphanage. The family is poor and thought she’d be better off then until she was older for health reasons amongst many others.
Basically, this kid who is NOT an orphan (like David is NOT an orphan) was supposed to return to relatives until Madonna laid eyes on her. Why doesn’t she just find a kid who IS an orphan? There’s plenty of kids with NO relatives that she could adopt without controversy.
She’s trying to use her money to “steal” a kid. That term ONLY applies when kids who do have relatives are taken because the rich person uses their money to get what they want!!! It totally applies in this case.
Madonna has made her own bed with her lifestyle, but then the father shouldn’t be throwing stones either. You don’t walk out then pop up once the media arrives for a story. Love her or hate her, she could give this baby a love filled life compared to how she is living now.
Maybe his life was threatened when the family found out what he did with their daughter.
Did the orphanage know that the grandmother wanted this child before Madonna showed up? I didn’t think so. It’s not clear that she even visited her. And the father didn’t show any interest either. If Madonna does not adopt this child, she will be left to languish in the orphanage until she is 18 or will be taken out by the grandmother and put to work so she can care for the grandmother. Not a pleasant alternative.
To Lisa:
how can you possibly know that a child living in Madonna’s life will have a love-filled life?
what we do know is that her children
– can’t watch TV
– follow a very strict diet
– won’t have a father, but will see many boyfriends come and go — many of those much younger than Madonna
– will be forced to follow the religion Madonna follows while Madonna makes a practice of disrespecting other faiths — perhaps the very faith the child’s birth family follows
– will be under intense media scrutiny for the rest of that child’s life
i don’t see this as such a great life.
and by the way, who’s to say that young Mercy hasn’t already formed close attachments to her birth family and to people who care for her where she is?
Madonna has far from proven she is fit to be a mother. She is known to have a very nasty temper. She’s clearly sex obsessed and self-involved. She’s no bargain — more like another Mommie Dearest in the making, looks like to me.
wow, this guy described her to a “T”. Funny thing she sold her body and her slutiness but she doesn’t let her kids watch t.v. out of fear of them seeing her with her legs spread open. hmmm, what a hypocrite we are huh gristle?
Regardless of the circumstances, this child has a LIVING PARENT THAT WANTS CUSTODY OF HIS BIOLOGICAL CHILD.
This shouldn’t even go to court. What next? Is she going to start kicking in doors and just steal children from random families?
She is a total sleaze. She shouldn’t have the 3 she has already, much less add to her brood of nanny-raised neglectorinos.
“who’s to say that young Mercy hasn’t already formed close attachments to her birth family”
What we know for sure is that she hasn’t formed close attachments to her biological father who still hasn’t bother to meet her. (But of course, the child was only born 3 years ago…).
I only hope that twenty years from now a journalist won’t come up with the idea to find little Mercy and ask her (if she is still alive) what she thinks of all that. You know like
“Mercy, you are 23 now, with no education, two or more children. Hopefully you’re not dying from AIDS, but you saw several of your close friends dying the last few years. You know that whan you were a child this crazy insanily rich American woman wanted to adopt you. Do you sometimes think what your life could have been?”
I highly doubt that Mercy would answer “mmm, that’s ok. i’ve heard that Madonna forbid her children to watch TV”!!!!!
What an interesting perspective on Madonna, from a man who lives in a very different culture than ours.
madonna is a grasping greedy old woman.
as a role model, she smells.
there’s not enough lysol on the planet to clean her — she’s just a dirty old hag.
and that’s why Mercy’s father doesn’t want Madonna near his child — whether he has spent time with the little girl or not. Some people can stand up to rich greedy bullies. This man’s is one. To me, he’s a giant.
THis man is after MONEY…plain and simple. if it was a poor woman from Malawi adopting the girl, he would never have come out of the woodworks. he is hoping Madonna will ‘buy’ Mercy from him and he can live a lavish life. many African men abandon their kids. Im from Africa, so i know. i have cousins who i have to educate because their moms died and their fathers (though alive) are MIA. they know they have kids, but couldn’t care less how they eat, live or breathe. the grandmother is also full of b.s. first off, there is no immunity against malaria..
It’s a shame this girl may never live a decent life because of greedy insensitive relatives who dumped her at an orphange. Madonna’s not perfect but look at David..he is such a different boy from that kid we once saw when Madonna first adopted him. he looks healthy and happy and goes to a prestigius school. imagine where he would be if Madonna had not adopted him? back at the orphange barely able to write his name and now he even speaks French.
puleeze SA – he was a toddler when he was at the orphanage — how could he know how to write his name then?
try, try, try — but there’s no painting a pretty picture of Madonna. she made it her business to personify ugly, marketed vanity and greed — she is the material girl, remember? or are you too young to know the whole story of who she is? i’m not — and what’s more — Mercy’s father isn’t taking her money. If he did, she’d have Mercy — and i do mean that as in HAVE Mercy — just like she would buy a new bag.
i feel so bad for this little girl caught in the middle of all of this. and lio, do you really think later in life, she’ll really wish she’d lived with madonna? i doubt it.
Jill,
Everydays, there are African people who kill themselves in the mediteranean sea simply by trying to reach Europe on small inadequate boats. So, yes, i think Mercy would like to have the opportunity to live in Europe.
Now that doesn’t mean that i think Madonna is a kind and devoted mother. Actually, i think that, were she to be adopted, Mercy would be cared of by nannies and bodygards. It would like an orphanage but with the opportunity to have a real education and the actual chance to live up to adulthood