David Banda and Madonna

The ‘Celebration’ singer – who adopted the boy, now four, from the African country in October 2006 when he was 13 months old – visited the centre where he used to live this week and the children couldn’t hold back their praise for her. One child said to her: “You are our God. Where could we have been without you?” Workers at the Home Child Care Centre in Mchinji, Malawi, also spoke highly of the 51-year-old star about the way she has been raising David. The centre’s director, Lucy Chipeta, said: “David is too young to understand… but for us who remember the sickly ... Read Full Story

The Associated Press and People Magazine are now reporting that Madonna will return to Malawi to adopt another child. They claim that Madonna has already filed the papers, and an American government official has confirmed the adoption. Though neither source gives the child’s name, Madge has been trying to adopt a now four-year-old little girl named Mercy James for well over a year, but the girl’s living relatives have tried to block it . Madonna recently gave an interview to Malawi’s Nation newspaper where she talked about her desire to adopt again, but said she hoped she would be able to do it with ... Read Full Story

Madonna was spotted bringing her 4-year-old son David to the orphanage he once lived: The Home of Hope Child Care Center. Reportedly , director Lucy Chipeta says she showed Madonna and David his crib during their visit to the orphanage near the Zambian border on Tuesday (October 27). The 51-year-old mother-of-four also took her two older children, Lourdes , 13, and Rocco, 9, along with her 3-year-old daughter Mercy - who was also adopted from Malawi - on the tour of the orphanage. The group also toured several new buildings that Madonna's Raising Malawi charity recently built. Madonna just launched construction of a multi-million ... Read Full Story

SEACOM , the much anticipated undersea fibre-optic cable system that will connect Africa to the World at a blazing 1.28Tbps, is 54 days from completion.The folks at SEACOM have now created a twitter account through which they share the latest updates on their progress in the lead up to their launch in June. SEACOM’s progress has created a high level of excitement on the eastern region of the African continent, the only region in the World that has had neither intra - African nor direct access to worldwide international cable networks . In Kenya, local companies that will buy bandwidth from SEACOM have already ... Read Full Story

Madonna's Malawi adoption of 4 year old Mercy James has been put on hold amid protests from living relatives of the child who are angry that Madonna is snatching up one of their children in a celebrity adoption. Mercy's grandmother wonders why Madonna doesn't chose another child besides her granddaughter. Madonna's adoption of her son, David, was also met with similar protests. Thoughts? [PHOTO SOURCE: SPLASH NEWS] Madonna did not get her adoption approved. The singer, 50, spent about an hour in court Monday morning in the Malawi capital of Lilongwe, where a judge delayed ruling on her application to adopt a second Malawian ... Read Full Story

A Malawian court recently rejected Madonna's bid to adopt a child named Chifundo, a name that translates from the Chichewa as "mercy". The court rejected Madonna's application because of her failure to meet residency requirements. She will appeal the decision. An article in the Guardian titled Hooray for the Malawians who stood up to the Material Girl by Catherine Bennett, addresses some of the issues surrounding Madonna's adoption strategies in the African nation of Malawi. Ms Bennett's article provides interesting insights: Save the Children was more bothered by a personal selection process which appears to be based on surveying the contents of orphanages funded ... Read Full Story

The Foundation Heart for Malawi, led by Dr. Steven Paas, has announced the release of the combined Chichewa to English and English to Chichewa dictionary. As pointed out earlier , the main objective of this project is to bridge the gap of communication between speakers of Chichewa/ Chinyanja (C) and speakers of English (E). With its 730 pages in small print containing more than 35,000 entries, the dictionary is an indispensable instrument for Africans and expatriates, foreign workers and visitors, blue collar and white collar employees, farmers and town people, students and teachers, including those who deal with English and Chichewa at a scientific ... Read Full Story

The man who claims to be the father of Madonna’s new adopted child says he did not expect the star to get his daughter. The singer was given permission by a Malawian court to adopt four-year-old Mercy James on Friday, and is expected to take custody of the girl later today or tomorrow. It is understood most members of Mercy’s family agree with the decision. * James Kambewa is deciding on his next move. But James Kambewa said he wanted to look after his child. “I did not expect this outcome. I did not think the court would rule in this way,” he said. ... Read Full Story

Madonna has won her appeal to adopt a second child from Malawi, according to BBC News. The singer was denied the right to adopt four-year-old Mercy James in April after the court claimed that she had not fulfilled the necessary residency requirements. Delivering the appeal court's verdict, Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said that the initial ruling had failed to take into account the star's commitment to helping disadvantaged children in the African country. The 50-year-old singer was not in the country to hear the verdict, although she had attended the initial application in April, which was blocked by a lower court on the grounds ... Read Full Story

The Malawian biological father of Madonna's first adopted child said Thursday he was happy at the star's plans to adopt again from the country. "I am very very happy Madonna is going to adopt a sister called Mercy to David," Yohane Banda told AFP. "That's great news... Mercy and David will grow up together and remind each other that they come from a poor country called Malawi and hope they will do something about it," Yohane said. A court will rule Friday on whether to grant the US pop superstar's application to adopt a three-year-old girl, Chifundo (Mercy) James, from an orphanage in southern ... Read Full Story