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Madonna's ability to adopt a Malawian child in spite of an original court verdict against her is deeply worrying, writes Ama Biney. Madonna's action belongs in an established neocolonial tradition, Biney argues, one in which Malawi's Supreme Court judges have played a role not dissimilar to that of slavery-era African chiefs as the facilitators of human transfer. Recalling the forewarnings of Kwame Nkrumah around the shadow of neocolonialism, Biney contends that retaining Africans' self-respect will depend on challenging dehumanisation and putting such subjugation to an end.
In 19th century England it was fashionable for the middle-class and aristocratic English gentlemen and ladies to return from the West Indies with a black male or female domestic servant to serve in their lavish homes; such Africans were at times painted with this genteel class sitting by their feet like pet dogs or accessories. It exemplified that they were well-to-do, had travelled and had money. It set a trend among the English elite. Today, the vogue among Western celebrities such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie has reconfigured this practice.
Madonna's recent adoption of Mercy James Chifundo, and the adoption by Angelina Jolie of an Ethiopian child, are not devoid of the usual patronising and unconscious Western stereotypes that have historically characterised how Europeans see Africans and have related to the African continent. In the 21st century new forms of colonial subjugation have engulfed Africa, racism has reshaped itself and Africans have continued to be co-opted as collaborators in their own subjugation, such as when Malawi's Supreme Court lawyers recently permitted the 50-year-old singer to adopt the 4-year-old Mercy along with David Banda, who was adopted in 2006 at the age of 13 months. How many wealthy Africans do we see going to the Romanian orphanages to adopt orphans there? And if they did, would it have the historical baggage that resides in the relationship between Africans and Europeans? Would it be morally or ethically correct if they did so?
A recent documentary entitled 'Madonna and Mercy: What really happened' broadcast in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2009 was presented by the British investigative journalist Jacques Perreti. Its force was that it unearthed two dangerous and important facts: first, the involvement of the Kabbalah sect, related to Judaism, in the social and economic fabric of Malawian society; second, the collusion of the Malawian government in Madonna's charity Raising Malawi that builds orphanages in the country.
In the 19th century the Scottish missionary David Livingstone came to Malawi to save African heathens. Unknown to many individuals in the West and in Africa is the fact that Madonna belongs to the religious organisation Kabbalah that has allegedly provided childcare centres to 160,000 children in Malawi.
Fundamentally, neocolonialism is thriving on the African continent in different permutations from its 19th century predecessors of formal colonialism and slavery that engendered direct colonial rule. During the Slave Trade, African people were taken to slave markets and auctions in the Americas and the Caribbean. They were inspected like cattle. In the documentary, we learn that Madonna's first adoption of David Banda in 2006 was prearranged by her then husband, Guy Ritchie, who saw David. It seems David was not among the 12 children lined up for inspection by Ritchie, who somehow saw David in the orphanage and sent pictures of him to Madonna before she came to Malawi to see him for herself.
O resto:http://allafrica.com/stories/200907230950.html
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