South Africa: Adoption - a new kind of slavery, or hope for the desperate?

There is something intrinsically awful about pop star Madonna whisking an infant, African boy out of a Malawian orphanage into her £9m country estate in Wiltshire; you can't help being instinctively repelled. The symbolism of the act -- a rich, white woman removing a child from its home and culture -- smacks of a new kind of slavery. For almost a century, Africa's "human resources" -- its people -- were ruthlessly mined according to the whims of the rich world. Once this ended, its physical resources were targeted. And now, its children are the targets.

But yet, the issue is more fraught than such cheap comparisons might imply. Madonna did not whisk the child away, but went through a barrage of intrusive examinations in the UK before the adoption was allowed. The view of a judge in Malawi was equally sought and gained. The adoption formed part of a larger programme initiated by the pop star to help orphans. And crucially, the father of the child, Yohame Banda, not only agreed with the adoption but was, apparently, positively thrilled about it. The ultimate test, as the courts tell us repeatedly, is what is in the best interests of the child. And here, the choice is so stark, the decision is easy.

The issue is not whether living with a pathological attention-seeker and sex- obsessed matron is a good thing, but simply about food. Banda was plucked from the decrepit Home for Hope, which lies 45km along a dirt track outside Lilongwe. The orphanage is home to 250 children, who sleep in five dormitories. It relies on food aid and many of the orphans are malnourished. This week alone, twins died of malaria, The Times reported. When asked about the arrival of three white Nissan 4x4s and the entourage of 11 security guards, publicists and a camera crew, one of the other children said simply: "I wish I'd been the one she adopted."

The whole process has raised a hullabaloo. To the cynics, an African baby is the latest fashion accessory, a step up from a Chihuahua, for example. To others, while extraterritorial adoption might be acceptable, the fact that the child's father is still alive complicates the situation. With a parent living close to the orphanage, the sense that the child is being removed from his home environment is more acute. And then there is the issue of Malawian law, which appears to have been relaxed in deference to the pop star's celebrity.

But yet, from a broader perspective, societies' unease about adoption seems small-minded. According to the United Nations (UN) Children's Fund, there are 143-million orphans -- one in every 13 children in the developing world -- in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

And this number is rising fast. According to the UN, between 1990 and 2010 the number of children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa will have risen from less than a million to more than 15-million -- one in five children in a handful of southern African states.

Contrast this with the total number of extraterritorial adoptions to the UK in the past year: 320. All of a sudden, the number of extraterritorial adoptions seems absurdly small when compared with the need, and the analogy with the plundering of Africans during the slavery era seems absurd.

So why not help children in general rather than plucking one lucky child out of the morass? Of course this is possible, but it's also like asking why African countries are struggling to look after their young. The question is valid but abstruse. Of course aid should help generally, just as African countries should improve their economies so that they don't have to suffer the indignity of having their young exported. But it doesn't help decide what to do about adoption here and now.

The answer is difficult. No one really believes that extraterritorial adoption is a good thing, but equally, only the heartless would deny adopted children a chance at a better life, even if they lose all or part of their heritage in the process.

Editorial
23 October 2006

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