Jessaca Leinaweaver,
"Adoption and the Politics of Modern Families"
(page 4 of 5)
One example I saw in Peru was of a mother who had an opportunity to
work harvesting coffee in the jungle, a place not suitable for children
but the only job available to her and the only way she could make some
money to be able to feed her child. Another case I read about was of a
man whose wife died in childbirth, like Mercy's mother. The man didn't
know how to take care of a baby, so he gave her to the orphanage to care
for until she grew old enough to be somewhat self-sufficient,
perhaps three or four years old in the Andes. Leaving a child at an
orphanage must be viewed in the context of a country where people are so
poor that in their desire to take care of their children, they determine
that the only way to do so is to take this drastic, but temporary
measure.
Similarly in Malawi, according to CBS, Mercy's grandmother thought
the orphanage would help lighten her load until Mercy was old enough to
go to school: she was quoted as saying: "the discussion that we had was
that after 6 years I would be able to get Mercy back into the community,
so that she could be integrated back." In the interviews she said, "I
did not want my granddaughter to be adopted." She added that she hoped
for Mercy to visit often and return home to live in Malawi when she
finishes school. James Kambewa also told CBS, "I do not want my baby to
be adopted."[26]
These revelations about family members who potentially do not want
Mercy to be adopted sketch a picture of stratified reproduction. To put it
bluntly: in a poor African country, an overwhelmed grandmother and an
alleged father estranged from his child's family are ostensibly
pressured by the orphanage to legally renounce the child so that a
wealthy, powerful, white celebrity can sweep her up and take her back to
one of her several well-appointed houses. Like the fertility clinic
doctor in the Indian surrogacy example, Madonna frames her adoption of
Mercy as potentially contributing to Malawi's development: "And it's my
hope that she, like David, will one day return to Malawi and help the
people of their country."[27]
Yet we cannot simply take James Kambewa's and Lucy Chekechiwa's words
at face value. What they describe might be exactly what happened; or it
might also be that they are representing their actions and decisions in
the best light possible, knowing that they are now part of a global
media event, and they may be exaggerating their desire to keep Mercy
close to them. According to Madonna's spokesperson, Liz Rosenberg, "No
family member has ever come forward to claim this
child."[28] Between
Chekechiwa's hopes for Mercy's future in the community and Rosenberg's
point that no one had come forward to claim Mercy lie many unanswered
and unanswerable questions: did family members maintain contact or
communication with Mercy while she was in the orphanage and before
Madonna's interest was apparent? If not, was this due to disinterest and
abandonment, or to social and cultural pressures? In either case she
appears to have been brought to the orphanage and available for
adoption; both possibilities are tragic, but only the former prefaces an
adoption without ambivalence over what could have been done differently.
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