The family of Yohane Banda, the father of the boy adopted by Madonna in Malawi, are claiming the authorities are taking advantage of Yohane’s lack of worldliness.

Yohane attended the courthouse in Lilongwe last week to see Madonna being given temporary custody of his son David and explained about the heartache of handing his son over to the orphanage.

Yohane explained: “I had taken David to the orphanage because my wife had died and he was sick and we could not care for him. My other two sons had passed away from malaria while they were still young. When David became sick, I didn’t know how to cope.”

“I have no experience of these things. My in-laws did not want him and my extended family are too poor to take him in. I was scared he would die like my other children so I took him where he could be looked after.”

“I felt very sore in my heart but I could think of no other way. He was one month and seven days old. The orphanage made me sign a letter to show I was handing him over to their charge.”

“I suppose deep in my heart I always imagined that when he was better, or I had another wife, I would go and take him back. I did not think anyone would want to take him away for good.”

Yohane cycled 25miles to visit David in the orphanage when he could: “I would bring him food from my garden then sit and play with him for a while. I wanted him to know I was his father, that I love him very much. He is my only child still living and I think of him as a gift from God. He is also the best memory I have left of my wife.”

“I suppose I don’t have any say in what happens to him now. He will always be in my heart. I hate to see him leave Malawi but I have come to accept the loss.”

“It has all been very crazy. Everything has happened so fast. I can’t believe what is happening.”

“But in court, I did understand I was agreeing to give the baby up for adoption.”

However, Yohane’s relatives don’t think that is necessarily the case. His brother, Pofera Banda, said recently: “People have taken advantage of my brother because he has little education. If this child is taken, as we have been told he will be, when will David be allowed to visit us? When will we visit him? How much contact will there be between him and his family?”

“We have seen other parents still living in poverty after their children had been adopted. They have not seen their children at all. All they see is pictures. We don’t want that to happen to this family.”

“If the child is going with Madonna we want our brother Yohane to go and see where he is staying. If that is not going to happen then as a family we say the child should not go.”