'Madonna Betrayed Us after adopting our daughter' - Malawian Familycries out...

The family of Madonna's adopted daughter ,Mercy have condemned her for not visiting them and have issued a desperate plea to be allowed to see their daughter.


The grandparents of Mercy James accuse the star of cutting them out of her life and failing to meet a promise to keep her close to her roots. They also attacked 'white foreigners' for taking children away from Africa.Saxon Maunde, grandfather of Mercy James who was adopted by Madonna in 2009, told MailOnline:

 'Nobody has told me a thing about Mercy being in the country or about her welfare since she left us.'She has my blood flowing in her veins. It is preposterous that I am not made aware of anything regarding her development.'

The 69-year-old, who makes out a living selling pots from a roadside stall, added that Madonna had, 'broken my heart and hearts of my family members,' saying that, 'she has shown no humanity at all towards us.'

Saxon Maunde originally backed Madonna's bid to adopt his granddaughter because he believed she would get a good education, and convinced his reluctant ex-wife to agree the adoption papers.

But today, as Madonna visits Malawi with Mercy James, he said he bitterly regrets his decision and accused Madonna of kidnapping a child of Africa.He said:

'White foreigners who decide to take our children away from Africa have no understanding of our culture. They don't realise that in our African families each one has a responsibility to the others. If a half-brother or half-sister does well, they share their fortunes with all of the others.
'A child like my granddaughter Mercy, if she succeeds in her career, she is expected to share that success with all of us. That is how our extended family system works.'

'I worked for a household years ago where a foreign lady took one of the children to be educated and brought up abroad, and that child came back as a doctor and improved the lives of every member of the family. That is what persuaded me to let Mercy go.

Now I see that all she meant was that she would bring her here on holiday, stay in an expensive lodge for foreigners, and cut us – her real blood family – out of her life. That cannot be the right way to do things. No foreigner has the right to interfere in our culture like this.'

By putting a distance between Mercy and me and members of my family, she is being extremely unfair.'We are extremely poor, but we do not need her money,' he added. 'A simple acknowledgement that we exist, that we are humans with feelings and that we do not wish to be disconnected from our child will be enough.'What has happened to our family should be a lesson to anyone who may be approached by Madonna with promises to make lives of children better.'

  His thoughts were echoed by his ex-wife Lucy Chekechiwa, also 69, who fears she may never see her granddaughter again.

'I am now old and sickly,' she said. 'I don't want to die before seeing my daughter.'