{"id":1609,"date":"2010-08-08T18:18:13","date_gmt":"2010-08-08T18:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.againstchildtrafficking.org\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2010-11-04T18:20:40","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T18:20:40","slug":"have-mercy-on-a-father-madge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/have-mercy-on-a-father-madge\/","title":{"rendered":"Have mercy on a father, Madge"},"content":{"rendered":"
Source: http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za<\/a>\u00a0<\/div>\n
Aug 8, 2010 12:00 AM | By BONGANI MTHETHWA\u00a0<\/div>\n

Malawian dad of Madonna’s adopted child wants to see her<\/p>\n

\u00a0SAVING UP: James Kambewa hopes to get enough money to visit his daughter in London\u00a0\u00a0‚I think about her every day. Having a baby is a blessing. So I go through the emotional pain of not living with her every day‘\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The Malawian father of pop star Madonna’s adopted daughter is waiting tables in Durban to save up for a flight to London to see his only child.<\/p>\n

If James Kambewa makes it that far, it will be the first time he sets eyes on the five-year-old since her controversial adoption by Madonna about a year ago.<\/p>\n

Kambewa moved to South Africa from his home town of Kasungu last September, missing a rare chance to see Mercy in the flesh when the 52-year-old singer and her daughter visited Malawi in April to set up a \u00a310-million academy for girls.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, an emotional Kambewa recalled his heartbreak at never having met „my baby“.<\/p>\n

„As a father, I think about her every day. Having a baby is a blessing. So I go through the emotional pain of not living with her every day,“ he said.<\/p>\n

But the shy 26-year-old, who has accepted he will never gain custody of his daughter, admitted he had no idea how to go about securing a meeting with Madonna and his child.<\/p>\n

„I would like to make peace with Madonna so I can meet my baby,“ he said.<\/p>\n

„I need someone to advise on me how to go about doing that. From the time I learnt that my daughter was still alive, I’ve been longing for a chance to meet her.“<\/p>\n

He said he had initially opposed his daughter’s adoption by the singer because he wanted her to grow up as a Malawian and be raised according to his own culture.<\/p>\n

„Sadly, she can’t learn any of that now, but I would still like her to be raised in a good way that any child is supposed to be raised,“ he said.<\/p>\n

Kambewa has only seen his daughter on TV and in newspapers. He does, however, have six pictures of her taken when she was three, sent to him by a friend. He would not elaborate on how his friend had obtained those photos.<\/p>\n

Mercy’s mum, who was 14 when she fell pregnant, died while giving birth to her, and Kambewa said he believed that his daughter had died with her.<\/p>\n

He said he discovered later, through a friend, that Mercy was alive and at an orphanage.<\/p>\n

He declined to talk about circumstances around the discovery of his child, except to say: „It’s a very long story and I don’t want to talk about that.“<\/p>\n

Relatives of Mercy’s mother, who were angered that Kambewa had shirked his responsibility as a father, reportedly backed Madonna’s adoption bid.<\/p>\n

Kambewa had tried unsuccessfully to convince the Malawian authorities that he was the biological father of the child.<\/p>\n

Despite having offered to go for a DNA test to prove paternity, as well as his willingness to appear in court, his efforts were fruitless.<\/p>\n

Madonna had met Mercy at a Malawi orphanage in 2006 – the same year she adopted another Malawian child, David Banda, from another orphanage.<\/p>\n

Malawian law prohibits foreigners from adopting unless they have been resident in the country for at least 18 months. However, the country’s supreme court overturned a lower court ruling barring Madonna from adopting Mercy and decided that the singer’s charity work in the country made her worthy of adopting a child from there without being a permanent resident.<\/p>\n

Madonna’s charity, Raising Malawi, helps feed, educate and provide healthcare for more than a million orphans.<\/p>\n

But human rights groups accused the government of giving the singer special treatment and said the case would encourage foreigners to adopt Malawian children at will.<\/p>\n

„I would appreciate if Madonna could even send me pictures of how she looks like now as I don’t get any pleasure of being with her. It’s emotionally painful for me as a father,“ he said.<\/p>\n

„I’m very happy that Madonna is taking care of her. But as a parent, from the moment I heard that she was still alive, I wanted to meet with her and I’m hopeful that I’ll meet her one day.“
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\u00a0 Aug 8, 2010 12:00 AM | By BONGANI MTHETHWA\u00a0 Malawian dad of Madonna’s adopted child wants to see her \u00a0SAVING UP: James Kambewa hopes to get enough money to visit his daughter in London\u00a0\u00a0‚I think about her every day. Having a baby is a blessing. So I go through the emotional pain of… Weiter »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1610,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions\/1610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}