KUDOS FOR MALAWI
Hama Tuma
Some of you may surely think that I am praising Malawi for observing its laws and rejecting the attempt by the Madonna woman to adopt yet another Malawian child. A judge who is now being praised less and condemned more in Malawi itself did suddenly realize that the law of Malawi are in the book to be applied and he declared that Madonna, who has not had an eighteen months residency in Malawi, cannot just fly in with her military trousers and chequebook and take off with another Malawian child. Adoption denied said this judge and the whole of Africa looked up in surprise especially in Ethiopia where the sale of children for adoption is a brisk business and if you have money and you are called Jolie you can fly in and buy any child you want no matter if the parents are still alive.
My kudos is not for the judge who is admittedly a rare specimen in Africa for being serious about the laws he had vowed to uphold. Seasoned Africans will pity him for his Thomas Sankara complex and wish him well as he may not last long in his post even if the devotedly Catholic president of Malawi, who is rebuilding the 200 mosques burnt in 1999 during election time riots, strongly vows he is here to uphold the law and stamp out corruption. My congratulations is in fact to this same Malawian president who backed my earlier call of “Adopt Us All!” launched to Madonna, Jolie and all other Westerners who are whisking off children from Africa. My previous call was based on the reality of the adoption racket since the sale of children did not adhere to any national law, children are being kidnapped for sale, the adopted children were not in most cases orphans and since the criteria is that their parents are poor the poverty index makes the parents themselves eligible for adoption. My sensible argument or call, as sensible as Jonathan Swift’s call for the famished Irish to eat their children, was scoffed at by many people and some even went out of their way to suggest I may be hankering after a modern day softer and disguised version of the infamous slave trade for which Africa has yet to receive a proper reparation. Now, the president of Malawi has boldly backed my call in his own way and brought the whole issue once again to the surface. He frankly told the Sunday Times of Aril 4, 2009:
. “I wish someone had come and taken 10,000 Malawian children because then I would know that 10,000 Malawians would have better education and opportunities,”
Now this is a crystal clear call for a broader concept of adoption. No one can accuse the President of Malawi of being the white man’s stooge. This is the person who changed his name from Brightson Webster Kyson Thom to the more African and nationalist Bingu wa Mutharika. Known affectionately among his supporters as “Chitsulo Cha Njanji” or railway track metal, Dr. Bingu is generally considered an honest man. He is openly and frankly saying the more Malawian children taken out the merrier. Why? As the President said, this is because they would have a better life, better education and opportunities in the West. In other words, if more whites take more poor people out of Africa to the West it would be great. In short, adopt us all please. I am sure the vast majority of people in Malawi survives with a dollar a day much like Ethiopia where the adoption racket is thriving and the ruling elite, with the thieving duo PM Meles Zenawi and his wife in the lead, is pocketing big money. The recent G20 meeting has shown once again that Africa is considered irrelevant and the so called mouthpiece of the continent at the summit, left after “cowering in the shadows” ignored by all. It is better to seek another solution.
A few years back one “Africanist” did write a book suggesting that Israelis and Japanese should replace Africans in Africa and the blighted continent would develop in no time. (Of course the book sold well in Europe—what did you expect?). Emptying the continent sounds a bit abrupt and crude, if not cruel, but doing the same through adoption would be gentler and kinder much like that promised to us gullible people by the New World Order. If having better education and opportunities is the criteria then adult Africans suffering the lack of education and opportunities can be prepared for adoption and the whole program can be organized by the IMF and the World Bank instead of indebting Africa again and again and intensifying its poverty. America resettled en masse the so called Somali Bantus and the Lost Children of the Sudan (yes, Washington has yet to learn that the majority of African children are lost). Moreover, if say the Congolese of Eastern Congo are adopted en masse and taken to Belgium, France the USA, then there will be no one to wage war and no more five million more deaths over Coltan and other minerals will occur. Instead of being called the Coltan Murderers the West would be praised as the Coltan Adopter and life saver. Imagine!
Dr Bingu, who is a president and will be listened to even if Malawi is a poor country, has pierced through the hypocrisy and called for the West to adopt thousands and not just a few hundreds. One does wonder how come Madonna adopted the child called David from Malawi in the first place if the residency requirement was still part of the law back then but this is an irrelevant question. We are poor because were sold out by our own corrupt “leaders” and fleeced by foreign predators since colonial times. We are being adopted, uprooted from our lands and cultures and parents because we are poor. The vicious circle of African reality affirms that tomorrow is dismal for the children and adults alike. Thus, those who claim to feel for us, those who shed many tears for Darfur and some drops for Eastern Congo and none for others, should go the adoption way. Most of these rich actors have big ranches that can accommodate many African farmers who can till the land (we picked their cotton as slaves, didn’t we?) and make them richer still. If Africans are adopted they cannot endanger the West as clandestine and illegal immigrants and they shall not pollute their shores by dying en masse. Evidently, this would be one more plus for protection of the environment. Dr. Bingu has come a long way in backing my call for wholesale adoption before it becomes too late. Kudos for Malawi.
